TAMING AVA or FIXING JAX -- A Modern Fairytale
by malenavillainess
Summary: AVA NEVER WANTED A REAL MARRIAGE. To stay in her father's will she has to be married for 3 yrs. Easy, she marries Jax Teller who is in prison for 20 yrs. Surprise he gets out. He really was set-up by ATF. Can sexy, charming & tough Jax tame his spoiled rich brat bride? She'll fight him every step of the way because no man is ever going to tame her. WARNING: NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT.
1. Chapter 1 Enough is Too Much

8

**"**

**Chapter 1 **_**Enough is Too Much**_

Ava Becker walked into the Sons of Anarchy clubhouse. Her father would have a stroke if he could see her. He wanted to move her to a town in the middle of no where as punishment for trashing a few houses during some out of control parties, that was just fine. She'd show him she could get into more trouble in Charming. What could put fear into a father's heart more than knowing his darling daughter was partying with an outlaw biker club?

"Who do I give these to?" she yelled holding up a bottle of Glenlivet 25 year single malt Scotch in one hand and a bottle of Patron in the other that she'd taken from her father's well stocked bar. Well stocked or not, it wouldn't be long before her father noticed she'd taken some of his most expensive liquor.

"I'll take those from you, darlin'," a man with a Scots accent said taking the bottles from her hands.

She looked him over. He was average height, dirty dark hair with a bit of gray in it, a scruffy beard and dark eyes. His most striking feature were two curved scars running from the middle of each cheek down to the outer corners of his mouth. She didn't know if that had been so strange Scots ritual or if he'd just pissed some people off. She didn't see herself sleeping with him.

"My name's Ava," she said.

"I'm Chibs. You new in town?"

"My father and I moved to town. We live in the Castle."

"Castle?"

"It looks like a castle. It's on a hill on Castle road."

"Hale's Folly we call it around here. Hale's a local developer. Built this big castle looking thing that no one around here wanted. It's been vacant for years."

"Well, it's not vacant any more. I'm there all by my lonesome because my father's out of town."

"This is Juice," Chibs said pointing.

He desperately needed a stylist to sort out his bi-polar hair. His dark hair what little there was of it was in a kind of Mohawk only the hair strip was closely shaved. The shaved sides had tattoos. He had nice smooth skin, no facial hair and dark eyes. Not bad, but not great.

"This is Bobby also known as Bobby Elvis," Chibs continued.

He fit her picture of a biker. He was tall, heavy with long curly hair and a beard. A little teddy bearish, but looked like he could use a good scrubbing. No way was she sleeping with him. Not even blindfolded and drunk.

"I do a fat Elvis act," Bobby said.

"I never would have guessed that."

"I'm Tig," another man said.

He had brown hair and bright blue eyes. There was something about him that just wasn't quite right. She'd learned to trust her gut. Next.

"This is Happy."

He just gave her a look.

Physically he was more to her liking. He was average height, tight muscular body, shaved tattooed head, nice even features, but this guy rang all her alarm bells. There was something cold and dark going on in his eyes. He might just be perfect.

Just then she turned and saw all the mug shots on the wall. One drew her attention. The guy was handsome, blonde hair with piercing blue eyes. He was just her type.

"Where's he?" she asked pointing at his picture.

"That's Jax. Fucking cops set him up. He got twenty years in prison," Chibs said.

"Fucking cops," Ava said. This was the problem with the criminal justice system. It didn't matter what the guy did, he was too fine to rot behind bars.

"You guys want to come see the castle and party?"

"What about the crow-eaters?" Chibs asked jerking a thumb in the directions of three women in jeans and tank tops.

"Bring'em. The more the better. Who wants to drive my Ferrari? I want to ride on the back of a bike."

Two of the crow-eaters volunteered to drive Ava's custom painted pearl white Ferrari to the castle. The other crow-eater was going to ride with Bobby.

"How about you giving me a ride?" she suggested to Happy.

"OK."

"Why do they call you Happy?" she asked.

The men exchanged looks.

Happy lifted up his shirt and showed Ava his finely chiseled abs and tattoos including some Happy face tattoos.

"I get it," she said.

He handed her his bike helmet.

"I want to feel the wind in my hair," Ava said.

He gave her another look and took the helmet from her. Silently he put the helmet on his head and tightened the chin strap. Before they left, she snapped some selfies of her on the bike and posted them to all her social media accounts.

Hale's Folly or the Castle was located at the top of a curved road. Ava loved riding on the bike. It was the most power she'd ever had between her legs. She grinned at the thought. Holding on to the biker was also its own version of fun.

She wondered how many people the guy killed. He just had that look in his eyes not that she would know about things like that. She imagined that's the way a killer's eyes would look. She'd seen a lot of TV interviews with serial killers.

It suddenly occurred to her that his eyes reminded her of Richard Ramirez's eyes from a documentary she'd watched on The Night Stalker. No way was she sleeping with him ever. She didn't mind risks, but sleeping with a guy with serial killer eyes was beyond a risk she was willing to take. Letting her father think she'd slept with him would have the same impact without the danger.

They arrived with lots of noise. She watched as the lights on the top floor of the castle turned on. She could even seen the blinds move as Jeeves peeked out. He'd soon rat her out to her father, and what he missed, she'd post on all her social media accounts.

Jeeves had been with her father since she was six and her junkie mother died of an overdose. Her father had nicknamed him Jeeves from some character in some books by P.G. Wodehouse. He was always pulling his employer Bertie Wooster out of the craziest predicaments.

He'd helped her out of some dilemmas even concealing some early car damage from some youthful bad driving, but the last six or seven years he'd taken to telling her father on her. She couldn't trust him anymore. She missed having him in her life as an ally and friend.

Outside the castle looked like a smaller scale less grand version of the castle at Disneyland. It was painted a pale gray lit by white lights giving it a very dramatic look. Each corner had a turret and there were a few more in the middle. It was an architectural nightmare. Hale's Folly was a fitting name, Ava thought.

Ava got off the bike and walked to the front doors and waited for everyone.

"Your keys," a short brunette said handing her the keys. "My name's Wanda."

"How'd you like driving the car?" Ava asked.

"Great. The side was already scraped when I got it," Wanda said.

"I know. Don't worry about it."

"My name's June," a freckled faced blonde said.

"So what's a crow-eater?" Ava asked.

"What do you think it is?" the third woman came over to join them. She was also a blonde and at least ten years older than Wanda and June.

"I'm new in town."

"My name's Beth. You have a lot to learn. The MC is an outlaw MC. It's called SAMCRO for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Originals. Do I really need to explain crow-eater now?"

"I got it," Ava said.

The men joined them and Ava led them into the house. Her father had sent a team of decorators to do the house. As usual, he didn't ask her if she had any ideas. She didn't even get a say in how her bedroom was decorated.

The house was too gothic for her tastes done in deep dark colors There were heavy forest green drapes, dark wood floors with Oriental carpets, big heavy furniture and ornate light fixtures. It felt like they'd stepped back in time.

"This place does look like a castle inside," Chibs said.

"Yeah, it's enough to give me nightmares. I keep expecting to see a ghost or vampire," Ava said.

She led them down a long winding hall to the back of the house.

"Help yourself to anything you want to drink in the bar. The fridge here has soft drinks and cherries, lemons and other drink stuff."

"What can I get you?" Chibs asked moving behind the bar.

"Tequila shots for everyone!" Ava shouted.

She went to her father's fancy pretend jukebox and put in her playlist. Every night followed a pattern. Tonight was new because this was the first time she'd had guests over. It would soon follow her usual routine, get drunk, get loud and have as much as fun she could squeeze out of the evening.

There were two pool tables. She took turns playing pool with all the guys while the crow-eaters took turns hanging all over the guys. There wasn't much to show for her party.

She thought the bikers would be more destructive. Outside of a couple of broken glasses thanks to the crow-eaters, nothing had gotten broken. She just might have to trash the room herself after they left. Who the hell could have imagined outlaw bikers being so well behaved?

She took a few selfies with Happy that would lead her father to believe that she'd had sex with him. Happy wasn't any the wiser. He was pretty drunk. They all were drunk including her.

"Everyone stay over," Ava said. They were all too drunk to drive and that was one of the few rules of her father's that she obeyed—don't let drunk people drive. He'd given her the math behind the rule—they could get sued for a ton of money and that would be money she wouldn't inherit.

Juice and Wanda had already passed out on one of the big kidney colored leather sofas. Happy was under one of the pool tables. Beth was asleep draped over the top of a passed out Bobby on one of the pool tables. Tig was sleeping on top of June. Chibs was passed out on top of the bar, a bottle of Scotch in his hand. She went over and took the bottle out of his hand. She didn't care about the damage it did, but people could get hit with glass if the bottle shattered.

She decided to sleep downstairs with her guests so she could trash the room as soon as they left. She didn't want Jeeves to find the house in a messy but damage free state. That would be a win for her father. She'd never get out of Charming if her father succeeded in taming her behavior. She decided to curl up near Happy and take a couple of selfies.

The next morning, everyone left early. The guys invited her to party at the clubhouse next Friday night and she accepted their invitation. Once they were gone, she got busy. She ripped the hated green velvet curtains, knocked over a couple of big ornate wrought iron candlesticks that were sitting on the floor. She ripped the felt on the pool table, tossed a couple of pool balls through a window and threw a bunch of glasses at the pretentious imported black marble fireplace. The decorators ought to be sued for malpractice.

She gargled with tequila and spit it on the floor before taking pictures of her handiwork. Her parties usually had far worse results, but it wasn't a bad start. She hoped like hell this would show her father that Charming wasn't the answer and they should go somewhere more civilized or maybe he would give her an allowance so she could move out and live where ever she liked.

She heard her father's Rolls drive up and watched him get out of his car. His face was already flushed with anger. She was sure Jeeves had already ratted her out.

Her father walked immediately into his study to see first hand what damage had been done to the house. He looked around and shaking his head. What really made it bad was he knew thanks to Jeeves that his daughter's guests hadn't damaged the house, it was his own daughter who had trashed the room.

Enough is too much. He should have done something about his daughter's behavior long before now. It was past time to do something. He had an idea. A smile spread across his face and he called his lawyer.

"


	2. Chapter 2 Best Laid Plans

3

**Taming Ava**

**Chapter 2 **_**Best Laid Plans Take Awhile**_

"

Tom Becker or TB as most knew him would never forget the day when Ava called him to tell him that mommy had a needle in her arm and she wouldn't wake up. He'd promptly called 911, sent his assistant to get Ava and continued trial prep for one of the many class actions suits he was lead attorney on.

He had made money the old fashioned way—he sued large corporations on behalf of a large group of plaintiffs and won multi-million dollar settlements that he got to keep big portions of. That was the dirty secret behind class action lawsuits. The victims never got much money, but that was never the point. It was all about the legal fees.

Even in law school, he wasn't under any illusions that law was about right and wrong. It was about twisting legal rules to tell half-truths to win victories and large settlements and with them big fat legal fees.

He'd done his time doing car accidents until a woman came into his small law office and told him of how a vitamin wrecked her life. She was crazy, but he could work with that. That had been his first class action suit. He'd quickly given up car crashes to focus exclusively on class action lawsuits. That was where the real money was.

For him, money was love. The more he made, the more he loved it and the more he wanted. No woman, not even his daughter, could change that. He'd come to grips with the fact that money was the great love of his life. He was just fine with it.

He'd tried to show her love the only way he knew how—showering her with anything she wanted except her independence. He didn't think she was ready to be on her own. She was in her mid-twenties, twenty-five or twenty-six probably, and had never done anything on her own from renting an apartment to buying a car. He did it all for her. That was going to stop.

He needed to do something to fix her so she could start living her own life. She had no idea about the value of money or what it was like to not have any. She was about to find out.

He dubbed his mission Operation Grow Up. Ava was going to grow up or he was leaving every penny of his more than three hundred million dollar fortune to charity.

She was irresponsible, reckless, impulsive, lazy and spoiled with no plan for her life. It didn't matter how Ava got the way she was; what mattered was fixing her.

He'd give her choices; she could go to school and earn her bachelor's degree or go to a trade school and learn something useful. She would then have to work a minimum of two years after that and fully support herself with not a penny of support from him. She could also just find a job and support herself for four years. That was it. She would have to prove she could make her own way in the world without his money.

Another idea suddenly occurred to him. This was even better than making her support herself—she could get married. If she had a husband, he wouldn't feel responsible for her anymore. Maybe the right husband could straighten out his wild child daughter. To tilt the scales in favor of this option, he would only require her to be married for three years. He was a fair man, so he wouldn't require her to stay married permanently.

It was perfect. With luck, she'd find herself a nice husband who could fix her.

**Next Up: Wiping the Smirk Off Her Face**

**Author's Note: I also write a T rated story called _Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run_. It's got a huge sprawling plot with a central love story of Jax and Scarlett. If you haven't noticed it, you might want to give it a try. It's supposed to be like watching a TV show with short chapters told from multiple characters' POVs. **


	3. Chapter 3 Wiping the Smirk Off

4

**Taming Ava**

**Chapter 3 **_**Wiping the Smirk off her Face**_

"

**_Author's Note: I always change my story's image every time I post a new chapter. With this story, I've decided to do a shirtless Jax theme for fun and visual enjoyment and as Jax would say "You're welcome."_**

"

Before summoning Ava to his second floor office, he checked all her social media accounts. Social media was a cancer. He hated it, but he used it to check up on his wayward daughter. There were pictures of her at the bikers' clubhouse, pictures of her on a bike with one of the guys and some pictures that suggested she'd had sex with the guy.

It hadn't taken her long to find the worst guys in town to hang out with and party with them. It was all about driving him crazy with her bad behavior, but it only steeled his resolve to fix his daughter.

He called her phone and told her he wanted to see her in his second floor office. She came into his office a few minutes later with a defiant scowl on her face. She was such a beautiful girl with her dark red hair and wide blue-green eyes. She was smart too or so the nannies told him. He didn't think he'd ever seen one of her report cards.

"I have had enough of your behavior," he said.

She rolled her eyes. Her father would chew her out for a bit and then that would be the end of it. He had never punished her in her entire life no matter how she misbehaved. She'd read a psych article about how if kids aren't punished they grow up feeling unloved. The article had been surprisingly on point.

She'd tried being good when she first went to live with her father. He'd ignored her. She'd tried being bad. Still ignored, but being bad was more fun so that's what she did.

"This time you've gone too far, Ava."

Another eye roll and she looked down at her nails. She needed to find a place to get her nails done. Maybe a nice deep almost black shade of red. It would go perfect in this gothic nightmare of a house.

"I don't know why we have to live here."

"I've got a solution for that," he said.

He had her attention now. Maybe he would finally give her a trust fund and she could get the hell out of this town and start her own life.

"I'm listening."

"I'm going to disinherit you."

"You can't do that," she said with a smirk on her face. "I'm your only relative."

"I can give the money to charity."

She wasn't worried. He'd threatened her occasionally and nothing had ever come of it. It was just all a bluff just to get her attention. He would never give away all his money.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

She shrugged.

"What do you want me to say?"

"It's too late for words. I've got my attorney working on a change to my will. I'm tired of your behavior . . ."

"Give me a trust fund and you'll be rid of me," she interrupted.

"Too easy. You don't know how to take care of money."

"That's your fault for never giving me an allowance."

"You can go to school or go to work and support yourself. If you want to go to college or a trade school, I'll support you and pay for it."

"I can't get into a college. I'd have to take college entrance exams and my grades aren't that good."

"Tell me where you want to go and I'll get you in."

"Isn't that illegal or are you going to tell them I'm an athlete? Maybe take a picture of me on a rowing machine?"

"It isn't illegal to give money to a college. You do it direct, call it an endowment and you'll be in. It's done all the time. If you want to go the school route, you'll have to submit your grades to me and if your GPA drops below a "C", you'll have to drop out of school and support yourself with no help from me for four years."

"Or what?"

"You're out of my will."

Ava stubbornly refused to believe her father was serious. He was just trying to scare her. She might have to behave herself for a week or two and then things would be back to normal.

"You have so much money; you could easily afford to give me a substantial trust fund."

"True, but that's my money not yours. No trust fund," TB frowned and appeared to be thinking. "There's another thing that you could do to not get disinherited."

Here it was, Ava thought. This was what he really wanted her to do.

"I'll give you a year to find a husband. Stay married for three years and you stay in the will."

He reached into a desk drawer and handed her a large legal sized envelope.

"This is a draft of my revised will. You will have until you are thirty-two to complete the terms. It's all outlined in here. I'll pay for you to get an attorney to go over this with you to make sure you understand. You will also discover that you have no rights to my money."

"I'm not going to sign it."

"You don't have to sign it. It's _my_ will. I'm letting you see the terms. When I sign it next week, I'll give you an executed copy. The clock's ticking, Ava. You better get your life figured out now."

Ava got up and slammed the door behind her. She'd never had much feeling for her father. Now she did. She hated him. He was just being a bastard because he wanted to hurt her. He'd raised her. She was a victim of his poor parenting. _This was his fault._

She half-expected him to change his mind and tell her that this had all been to just get her attention. It didn't happen. She'd gone to an attorney some woman named Ellie Lowen who told her that her father was within his rights to place conditions on her inheritance.

This was unfair for him to blindside her like this. Go to school and then work or work or get married. None of her options appealed to her.

And then it hit her. She could get married. Hot blonde guy was doing twenty years in prison. Being married for three years to him would be a piece of cake. She had found a legal loophole in her father's will.

Fuck you, daddy dearest. I'm getting married and I'm going to inherit every penny you've made. All she had to do was meet hot blonde guy and talk him into marrying her. Should be a piece of cake. _Should be_.


	4. Chapter 4 Heading to Prison

5

**Taming Ava - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 4 **_**Heading to Prison**_

"

Friday night Ava returned to the clubhouse this time as an invited guest. She brought four bottles of top shelf liquor with her. One of the few things she remembered from her mother was the time that she told her that a guest never shows up empty handed.

It was the high quality liquor she brought and her willingness to let the guys take turns driving her Ferrari that got her special treatment. She wasn't expected to do everything the guys wanted including the first duty of a crow-eater—the provision of oral sex on demand. It was clear to everyone that she wasn't on the same level as a crow-eater.

She did some drinking and dancing with the guys while carefully and subtly getting information on hot blonde guy. He was single, so her plan was definitely on.

She returned home early and alone. There was still some hope that her improved behavior would show her father that he should just tear up his new will with all its torturous requirements. As time went on, her hope was diminishing, but there remained a faint flicker of hope that he would change his mind and everything would go back to normal.

Ava knew enough about law to know that her conversations with Ellie Lowen were confidential, so she told her about wanting to meet Jax Teller and marrying him to fulfill the terms of her father's will. There were few attorneys in town, so Ava was not surprised that Ellie knew Jax and had even done work for the Sons.

Ellie agreed to take her to visit Jax. Attorneys got to meet privately and unmonitored, so Ava was going along as an assistant. This would give them the privacy needed to discuss a possible marriage between them.

Ava never planned on getting married. She'd never seen a happy marriage from her parents or her friends' parents. People were either unhappily married and unwilling to split up their property or divorced.

She didn't believe in love at first sight. It usually took her a few minutes. That first rush of love was intoxicating. She fell out of love faster. In seconds, she was over it and on to the next. She couldn't imagine being confined to one man for the rest of her life. No one could hold her interest longer than five weeks.

Ellie Lowen had also cautioned her that the marriage was going to have to look like it was real or her father could claim the marriage was fraudulent and that would violate the terms of his will. That might mean she couldn't date or sleep around for _three years_.

Well, there were always sex toys. She'd have to check out some new ones the next time she was in San Francisco. Charming didn't seem like the sort of town that would have a sex toy shop.

The MC guys could probably point her in the direction of the closest one or she could use her phone to find one. She didn't need to know anything. All she had to do was ask her phone the right questions. What the hell was the point in going to school when her phone knew everything?

Ellie was driving them to Kensington Federal Prison or Kensington Palace as it was known on the prison circuit. It was a medium security Federal prison about an hour away from Charming where hot blonde guy was incarcerated—a five syllable word that even the dimmest talk show guest knew.

She prepped for the meeting by watching a lot of daytime shows—mostly old Jerry Springer shows and some reality shows about prisoners. Between Ellie's knowing hot blonde guy and her research, she was sure this meeting was going to go well. No man had ever been able to resist her. This guy wouldn't stand a chance either.

Even her father had never been able to say no to her until this changing his will bullshit had happened. There was a tiny part of her that believed that if her father thought she was going to marry a prisoner, he would insist on giving her a trust fund instead. And then, off she would go to finally live her life. She wouldn't have to get married after all.

Ellie told her about the dress code, no shorts, no short skirts meaning two inches above the knee, no low cut tops or dresses, no tank tops, no tights, no leggings and no transparent clothes. And no dressing in clothes that looked like correctional staff or prisoners. That meant she couldn't wear beige or khaki. Not exactly a hardship. She couldn't wear orange because prisoners wore orange. Today she was wearing black pants with a black and blue cashmere sweater.

Ellie pulled into the visitor's lot.

"No phone, no weapons, no cameras. Be polite. The guards can be hard asses if you get on their bad side. Just keep quiet and I'll do all the talking and copy what I do with the searches."

"Searches?"

"Yeah, it's just a pat down like TSA only without the creepy scanners."

"Damned TSA bitches always give me a hard time. I think they just want my cosmetics because they always take them away. My father will charter a plane for him, but I have to fly commercial sometimes in _coach_," Ava said with a shudder. She shut her eyes trying to remove the traumatizing memories of flying coach from her mind—the screaming kids, the lack of legroom, the long line for the bathroom, the bitchy fight attendants, the damned cart banging into her _and_ the hour long wait for a drink.

They were patted down and wanded to make sure they weren't trying to bring in any metal. Her shoulder bag was searched. They walked on and into another room and searched again—another pat down and wanding.

Ava thought they did the search twice because they knew their employees weren't very good at their jobs so they hoped that what the first missed, the second would find. She wondered why they just didn't hire more competent employees and pay them a little more. Typical government incompetence or maybe it was a union thing.

They were taken to a small windowless room. Ava's stomach fluttered. She was surprised that she was nervous. She couldn't remember the last time she was nervous. Ellie had pulled out a blank legal pad and a pen.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Ava asked.

Ellie didn't like Ava much, she was a spoiled little rich bitch, but she'd be good for thousands of dollars in fees. That was what was important.

If she liked her a little better she might have warned her that Jax had a hot temper, she shouldn't try to play him and he had a lot of pride so she'd better tread carefully. Instead, she was just going to sit back and hope for fireworks.

"

_**Author's Note: After researching federal prisons, I created Kensington Federal Prison because there's a town near Oakland with that name and there's a palace in Great Britain with that name (where Princess Diana lived and Prince William and his wife live today) and it goes with my royalty theme. In the story it is located about an hour's drive from Charming. Some of the prison details are correct and others are just made up and might be right or not.**_

_**I've discovered that research can close off plots because you know that something isn't possible. For example, prisons are violent, but I think someone would notice prisoners dying from getting beaten to death and Lyla would have had a great lawsuit against the prison for Opie's death. Yet, she was scraping along on her porn star salary. You would have thought that Ellie Lowen would have had a chat with her about legal recourse over Opie's murder because she could earned a big fee if she handled the wrongful death suit.**_

_**Again, that's the down side to research and thinking too much.**_


	5. Chapter 5 Never Crossed Paths

7

**Taming Ava - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 5 **_**Never Crossed Paths with a Man like Jax Teller **_

"

Ava took out a tablet from the little brief case Ellie had given her so she'd look more like an assistant. She tried to make herself focus on three years and how much money she was going to get for that small amount of her life.

A door opened and hot blonde guy walked in. He held up his hands and the guard unchained him. That was hot. Very sexy. A man so dangerous he had to be chained up like some sort of wild animal. That could work as a fantasy tonight. That's all there would ever be between them. And that's exactly how she wanted it.

He wasn't her type at all. He was hot and blonde, but she preferred her guys to be more clean cut. He had a blonde beard. Disgusting. He had a cut above one eye and the knuckles of his hand were torn up. He must have been in a fight.

Tattoos peeked out of one of the sleeves of his short sleeved orange prison uniform. She hated tattoos. She didn't understand how anyone could think shoving ink under the skin in some piece of crap version of wearable art was a cool or sexy thing to do. She hoped he didn't get prison tats or he'd end up with hepatitis—not that it mattered to her.

He didn't extend his hand. That was strange. Maybe prisoners didn't shake hands. She didn't really like shaking hands much either. Too many germs. God only knew how many germs there were in a filthy place like a prison. She'd have to disinfect herself when she got to the car. She'd brought a large bottle of hand sanitizer that Ellie made her leave in the car. Apparently prison guards were hard asses about fluids like the TSA bitches.

Jax Teller was too male for her taste. He seemed to drip with testosterone—like it was leaking from every pore in his body. He didn't seem at all ashamed or embarrassed by being in prison. He carried himself confidently like the world was lucky to have him in it.

He was taller than she liked. She was tall and she preferred her men to be around her height so she could tower over them when she wore heels. He was bigger and much more muscular than she liked. He looked as though he lifted weights and was physically strong. She liked her men strong but without any muscle bulges. She could see the muscles in his arms and his upper body looked powerful under the orange prison shirt. No wonder they had to keep him chained.

He had shaggy blonde hair that went with the beard. She was OK with his hair color, but his hair didn't have any style to it. She liked men with short groomed combed hair. He had nice even features. She didn't like his eyes much though. He sort of raked her with these piercing blue eyes like he was trying to picture her naked. Maybe it was a man in prison thing. His lips were sort of twisted in a half smirk. So this was the man that was going to be her husband.

She was glad she was sitting down because she might have fainted at the thought. He was so far from the Hallmark movie type guys that she liked. She liked men to look more neutered. They were male but they didn't ooze testosterone like hot blonde guy did.

He was the type of man who would throw you against a wall, try to take your clothes off and have sex with you. The gentlemen in Hallmark movies would never do anything so crass. He looked like he was thinking about sex all the time. Disgusting.

"Jax, this is Ava."

Jax sat down across from Ava. He barely glanced at her. He could check her out later. He was focused on finding out if there was an update on his case.

"OK. You have news for me? You found a criminal appellate lawyer?"

"Actually, I'm not here so much as your lawyer. I'm assisting Ava."

Jax looked at Ava speculatively. He wondered what the hell this was all about, but it was better than hanging around in his cell or the yard.

"Yes," Ava said. Her voice was high and nervous. She couldn't understand why she found this man so unnerving. Definitely too much man for her taste. This was probably a trait the girls that liked to hang around the MC enjoyed, but girls like her preferred men who are smoothly sophisticated and knew how to pick out a good bottle of wine.

"Not another trial groupie," Jax said sourly looking Ava over.

She was pretty maybe even beautiful if she quit scowling. Tall, slim, nice tits, long legs, curly russet colored hair cascading past her shoulders, wide blue-green eyes and pillowy lips perfectly designed for a man's cock.

"I don't know anything about your trial. It's not why I'm here."

"So why are you here?" he said impatiently.

"I just moved to Charming with my father. We live in the Castle," Ava said.

Jax raised an eyebrow.

"Hale's Folly," Ellie clarified.

"He's got a lot of money and he hasn't been pleased with my behavior. In order for me to inherit, he's given me some options. They are all beyond horrid."

"You're trivial problems don't interest me," Jax said drumming his fingers impatiently on the table.

"Here's the interesting part. One of my options is marriage. I have to be married for three years to stay in his will. You're in prison. It's perfect."

He just looked at her, his lips in full smirking mode. He was a convicted criminal in prison. He should leap at the chance to be her husband. He should have already said yes by now. What the hell was his problem?

"What's in it for me?"

Maybe that was why he hadn't immediately accepted her proposal. She forgot to tell him what she was going to give him in return. Part of her had hoped that being married to her would be enough.

"I will give you money for your account."

Jax leaned back in his chair and laughed derisively.

"Do you really think that you are the only girl who wants to keep my account full?"

"Well . . . I don't know . . . about things like this," she said slowly. She was shocked that other girls were filling his account. She should have figured it out from the men behind bars reality TV programs she watched. Damn. She should have thought about this earlier. Maybe paid attention to the shows instead of playing games on her phone. Damn you Candy Crush!

"How much money do you think you're allowed to have in a commissary account a month?"

"Ummm . . . A thousand?" she guessed.

"Lower."

"Eight hundred," she guessed again.

"It's $290," Ellie Lowen said cutting the game short.

"Or a big $3480 a year," Jax added.

"I don't mind paying all that."

"So, I marry you, you give me $3480. How much are you going to inherit? How many million?"

She was a typical rich bitch showing her contempt for those who don't have the good fortune of being born to a rich daddy. She wanted to buy him for pennies.

"Several," Ava said.

"Make me an offer," Jax said.

Jax needed money to pay for his appellate criminal defense attorney. He'd been set up by two ATF agents a skinny blonde bitch named June Stahl and a doughy bodied middle aged loser named Joshua Kohn. The MC didn't have the money to pay for his appeal. He could end up rotting in prison for twenty years unless he could find a good attorney to find some way to get his conviction tossed.

There was no way in hell he would use Ellie Lowen. She was fine for minor MC misdeeds, but she and Rosen had been less than impressive during his trial. The only reason he didn't cut ties with the Rosen and Lowen law offices was he needed them until he could find another attorney. They were slightly better than having no attorney.

If he could get enough money out of this marriage, he was willing to do it. If he had to use a public defender, it could take him years to get assigned to one. The justice system wasn't in a hurry about anything. He needed money not just for legal fees, but for investigators to dig into the two ATF agents that set him up.

"Just tell me how much you want."

"Half a million," Jax said. "It's going to take a lot of money to get me out of prison. I'm innocent."

All inmates said they were innocent and they all thought they were going to hire some miracle worker attorney who would get them out. Jax might even be able to get out, but it would take longer than three years. Ava didn't believe for a second that he would get out before three years was up if he ever got out.

"I could get someone cheaper," Ava said.

"Go ahead, but you've got to sell your marriage to your father as real. You can't ask too many guys or word will get out and back to daddy. Men behind bars gossip a lot. He'll find out that you are looking to marry an inmate for fraudulent reasons because the guy will go to your father with the information so your father will pay him. You'll get cut out of the will. How much risk do you want to take?"

Ava looked at Ellie Lowen.

"He does have a good point. If word gets out you're shopping for a husband in prison, you could lose out. It's a small amount of money compared to what you will inherit. You try to save a little and it could be a disaster."

Ellie's motives weren't entirely pure. If Jax got a big chunk of money, she planned on getting a most of it to handle his appeal.

"That's a lot of money," Ava said.

Ava's father had a lot of money, but he kept tight control on it. He kept her cash starved. She had almost $600,000 that she had inherited from her mother when she died. That was all the actual money she had. She had managed to hang on to almost every penny of it, but it was all the money she had. If her father cut her off financially, that money would have to last her for the rest of her life.

"You aren't just buying a husband. You're buying my silence. No one will ever know about our arrangement," Jax said.

"I've known Jax for ten years. He'll keep the secret."

Ava couldn't even look at Jax. It wasn't the idea of marrying him so much. It was the idea of marrying anyone that she hated.

"Fine."

"I always thought my future wife would have more enthusiasm," Jax said sarcastically.

"I'll fake it."

"Let's meet in a few days. Give both of you a chance to think of anything you might want to include in the agreement," Ellie said.

That night when Ava reached for her sex toy, she thought about hot blonde guy, but it just wasn't working for her. She thought about Adrian Grenier. He used to be cool on Entourage. He'd reinvented his career doing Hallmark movies. He'd been stripped of all his edges and now had the antiseptic maleness that Ava liked. His even had the shorter hair that she preferred. Now he was a fantasy that worked for her.

"

_**Author's Note: According to my phone's research, Federal prisoners are allowed $290 per month in their commissary account. **_


	6. Chapter 6 Negotiations

8

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 6 **_**Negotiations **_

"

_**Author's Note: I said I was going to use images with Jax with his shirt off, but while he's in prison, I've decided to use pics of Jax in prison and then when he's out he won't have a shirt on anymore.**_

"

If Jax couldn't get his conviction tossed, he could kiss his youth good-bye. He was mentally tough enough to do the time, but it was still a helluva waste of his life. He would never have the money to pay a new attorney and he didn't trust Lowen or Rosen to handle his appeal. He blamed them for his conviction. He had wanted them to investigate the two ATF agents. They had told him they were working on it and had presented absolutely nothing at trial.

They had given him one of those useless defenses where the defense stands up and says the case hasn't been proven and that's the defense. Even high priced attorneys did that. Mostly it failed.

The MC had paid as much as they could afford, but unless Clay managed to line up a big revenue source, the chances of the MC ever having the money to help him pay for the appeal were slim.

Of course, he was entitled to counsel to appeal his conviction. He could get a public defender. That was going to be his only option if he couldn't find the money to hire his own attorney. It could take years to even get _assigned_ a public defender. His life was slipping away.

His situation looked hopeless until today when this opportunity just fell into his lap. He didn't have a problem with marrying a woman for money when refusing the offer could keep him in prison for decades. He saw this as an opportunity to right a wrong. It wasn't as though he were scamming her or telling her he loved her in order to get money. She was the one who wanted to marry him.

It suddenly occurred to him that even if they couldn't reach a deal to get married, he could use the internet to pay for his appeal. He needed to talk to Juice about setting up a "Go Fund Me" page for his legal expenses. Why didn't anyone think of that? It might take a month or two to get the money for marrying Ava. If they could get some money together maybe it would be possible for him to get an investigator to look into the corrupt ATF agents soon.

He had nothing but time on his hands. He would use his time to find a private investigator maybe he could find one with experience in handling cases involving ATF agents.

As far as getting out of prison and then having to pretend to be a husband, he could suffer through that in exchange for his freedom.

Ava was still hoping that she would be able to avoid actually having to go through with the marriage. Surely her father wouldn't let her go through with marrying a prisoner. Did he really want his clients and colleagues to know his daughter was married to a Federal prisoner, a convict?

The more she thought about it, the more she became convinced that she wouldn't have to go through with the marriage. He would have to think that the marriage was real. She would need to have to come up with a story to tell him.

She lay back on her bed, pillows propped behind her head and shut her eyes imaging the story she was going to tell her father. Her future depended on getting this right. She just wasn't sure that Jax Teller was the right man for the job.

Just to make sure there wasn't some inmate out there who would be a better fit for her plan, she looked through some pen pal requests from inmates online. It was a motley assortment. Definitely not like online dating.

The fact that Jax wasn't using any pen pal websites was a plus for him. He didn't look like he was looking for a woman to give him money. As much as she hated to part with such a large amount of cash, it would be worth the investment in her future.

Suddenly she had a thought that put the fear of God in her. What if they allowed _conjugal_ visits? OMG. No. It couldn't be. She asked her phone who told her that California allowed conjugal or family visits, but the Federal system did not allow conjugal visits. She would never have to deal with sex with Jax Teller. Thank God for small favors.

A few days later she and Ellie Lowen were back at the prison waiting for Jax. She was still nervous. She didn't understand that. Normally, nothing really bothered her especially men.

If she had been susceptible to falling for Jax, she would have already fallen in love with him by now. He just wasn't her type even if he weren't locked up and she'd met him in a club. She didn't even have to harden her heart against him.

Heartbreak was never a big emotion for her. She'd rather have her heartbroken than get the flu. A broken heart took only a day or two to get over if that. The flu could last four or five days.

When he walked in and held up his hands to get unchained, she could take another look at him without looking like she was staring. Nothing changed. He was still too tall for her taste and he was too muscular. There was something almost a little frightening about his powerful body. She liked the nice safe looking Hallmark heroes except the ones that had stubble. She hated facial hair and the whole beard trend. Stubble was still better than a man having too many muscles.

It wouldn't matter that he was a lot bigger than she was because he would spend their entire marriage in jail. She would never have to deal with any sexual demands because there were no conjugal visits allowed in Federal prisons. She was so glad he was doing Federal time and not state. That was another factor in picking him over some other correctional institute inmate. She just wished he could ramp down the testosterone.

She looked at his hands. They were almost two and a half times the size of hers. They were definitely not like the manicured hands of the guys she usually dated.

"I'm kind of uneasy about giving you a lump sum of money. I think it should be spread out over the three years," Ava said.

Jax's face flushed with anger.

"That's bullshit," Jax said. "I'm only doing this because I need money for my appeal. I need it up front."

"Why would you stay married to me after I give you the money?"

"I can help there," Ellie Lowen put in smoothly. "We can have the agreement state that you are giving him this money and if the marriage ends before the three year mark, he will return all the money to you plus interest."

"And I've lost out on my inheritance."

"I've got a solution for that," Jax said looking into Ava's eyes.

She had this sinking feeling that she wasn't going to like his solution. She didn't like the way his eyes bored into hers. It was like he was trying to get inside her head. Never going to happen, she thought.

"I'm sure you do."

"I get 10% of the money you inherit. This will motivate me to stay in the marriage for the three years and make sure you stay in the will. It will also keep my mouth closed about our deal."

"I'll give you 5%," Ava countered.

"Deal," Jax said promptly.

She looked into his eyes and knew that he'd just screwed her without touching her. Damn. She was a terrible negotiator. She'd just never been in a situation before where she had to barter with someone.

"OK. The deal calls for the $500,000 when you are married. If you stay married longer than 3 years, you will receive an additional 5% of any inheritance Ava receives from her father provided you never discuss your marriage to Ava with anyone. Anything else?"

"If Ava divorces me before three years, she doesn't get the $500,000 back," Jax said.

"Ava, is that acceptable to you?"

"Yes," she said, "unless I divorce him for adultery or domestic violence."

Jax smirked at her.

"I love it. You believe in my innocence and are already planning for our life together."

Ava stared at him and thought she was going to pass out. The idea of this man being uncaged and let loose in a house with her was almost more than she could take. He could believe all he wanted that she thought he was going to get out within the three years of their marriage, but she didn't think for a second that he was getting out early or she'd find someone else. The whole idea behind picking an inmate was that she didn't want a real husband or marriage.

Ellie was busy at work on her legal pad. Ava looked at her nails and was trying to decide what color she wanted to get her nails painted. She'd just had them painted a red so deep it looked black to match the Castle's goth vibe, but she was over the color.

Jax was sprawled in his chair leaking testosterone. He should put a plug in it. She wondered where the plug would go. She thought of a couple of places and had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

Maybe his cellmate could help him with the plug situation. She wondered if he ever had sex with other prisoners. Voluntarily or involuntarily. She looked up at him and back down. Why did she put that image in her head?

Prison where having your back takes on a whole new meaning. She burst into a fit of giggles. It was just too much. She had to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Jax demanded.

"Spontaneous laughter disorder," Ava said. "It just happens."

"OK, here's a draft. If it's acceptable, I'll type it up and hold it until you're ready to move forward with your marriage."

Ellie showed them the prenuptial agreement and went over each point making sure they both understood all the terms.

"Fine by me," Jax said.

"It's good for me too."

"OK. Just give me a call when you're ready to get this thing signed," Ellie said.

"What do we do next?" Ava asked.

"We need to look like we're a couple. You need to visit me, write me and take my phone calls. I'll put you on my visitor's list. I'll call you as soon as you get approved," Jax said. "Give me all your contact info."

Ava took the tablet out of the briefcase Ellie had loaned her and wrote down the information and handed Jax the sheet of paper. He turned the tablet around and wrote down his information.

"Ava, you need to keep in mind that anything you say to Jax if you're visiting may be recorded or listened to. Since I'm meeting with him as his attorney, this meeting is free of surveillance. All the mail is read and censored. Calls are also recorded. Don't forget."

"Any naked pictures you want to send me get confiscated. The guards trade them like trading cards."

"I'd never send naked pictures," Ava said.

Jax smirked at her.

"I'd send you naked pictures, but we're not allowed to have phones," Jax said.

"Guess I'll just have to imagine."

"Imagine big," Jax said.

Ava sucked in her breath. Why couldn't this guy be just a little less . . . male?

She and Ellie left the prison and returned to Charming. She did ask Ellie what she thought Jax's chances were of getting his conviction overturned. She gave her a typical attorney answer—in other words, she never answered the question.

That night, she thought about Jax Teller. She didn't reach for her sex toy. She thought about having sex with Jax Teller and she was completely turned off. Not even watching a Hallmark movie would help her now that she'd thought about sex with Jax.

Sex with him would be dirty, disgusting and animalistic. She was glad that she was never going to have sex with him. Now that was looking on the bright side of things.

"

_**Author's Note: Please help me make my story better and do a quick review and tell me what you like or hate. I always write back but if you don't want me to tell me that and I won't.**_


	7. Chapter 7 How Jax Got Locked Up

4

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 7 **_**How Jax Got Locked Up**_

"

Criminals were always saying they were set up and innocent. It was standard procedure. In Jax's case, it was actually true.

The Sons sold guns. The ATF would periodically circle the Sons trying to find some way in to bring them down. The Sons were smart and careful. This time the blindly ambitious and morally corrupt Joshua Kohn and a more junior but equally ambitious and corrupt agent June Stahl were assigned to this new attempt to bring them down.

After using legal methods to try to get into the Sons, Kohn decided the only way to bring them down was to operate outside the law just like the outlaw biker club. The goal was to arrest one of the bikers and squeeze him so hard he'd squeal on the MC.

It wasn't unusual for a guy, even an outlaw biker, to turn on his MC if he were going to be facing a long stretch in prison. The Big Balled Platoon, the Red Lizard Warriors and the Dirt Eating Asswipes had all been busted up thanks to guys ratting out their club on their drug dealing.

Jax was set up because they needed someone high up in leadership who would know all the inner workings of the club. They thought he was young and would be more willing to turn on his club so he wouldn't have to spend some of the best years of his life rotting away in a federal penitentiary.

The plan had been simple because simple was what worked best. June Stahl posed as a woman living in Charming fleeing an abusive relationship. She claimed that Jax sold her a KG-9 for protection. He was found in her car with the marked money in his pocket.

Kohn who was hiding in the backseat, claimed he saw Jax Teller give June Stahl the KG-9 for $1000. Jax claimed he was in the car to receive a blowjob she wanted to give him. That was it. He didn't have the KG-9 with him—in fact he claimed he had no place to put it. He claimed he had never even touched the gun; that it was already in the car on the passenger's side's floor when he got into the car. The next thing he knew, she'd stuffed money in his pocket and the car was surrounded by ATF agents. Strangely, all the electronic devices failed to record from video to audio.

The Feds had an explanation for that too. In addition to the money in his pocket, they also found a device that jammed phones and electronic devices. That was a further indicator of his guilt because an innocent person doesn't carry around a jamming device. Jax said he'd never even touched the device. It had been part of what Stahl had stuffed in his pocket just before the ATF busted him.

Within two days of his arrest, Kohn and Stahl paid him a visit offering to get the charges dropped if he would reveal everything he knew about SAMCRO's gun running. Jax stuck to his guns telling the two agents that he knew nothing about gun running, the MC didn't sell guns and they had set him up to try to force him into composing a story to get himself out of prison.

Jax had taken the stand in his own defense, but he was a member of an outlaw biker club and they were two upstanding agents of the ATF. It had been hopeless. From jury selection to trial to verdict it had taken less than four days.

Since he'd been in prison, the ATF through agent Amy Tyler had tried again to squeeze him for information promising to get the conviction tossed if he would cooperate and provide information on the Sons gun-running. They were especially interested in an IRA terrorist connection claiming they knew they were the Sons gun source.

SAMCRO knew Jax was innocent. The Sons were currently suffering an inventory shortage and they didn't have any KG-9s to sell. Selling guns—even one—was a club decision. Jax would never have sold a gun without clearing it. These facts couldn't be brought out because it would expose the Sons' gun dealing.

All the guys were angry and determined to get Jax out of prison, but there wasn't much they could do. For outlaws, they now had to depend on the law to get Jax out of prison. They weren't optimistic about his chances. As outlaw bikers, they were disposable to most of society. No one gave a damn if an outlaw biker innocent or not got locked up. The world was probably a safer place if the biker was locked up. Less crime.

Jax knew how hopeless his situation was but he still spent every minute he could in the prison law library. He didn't think the answer was going to come from his legal paperwork. The answer was going to come from someone digging into Kohn and Stahl. There was something there. There had to be.

At a minimum Kohn and Stahl had to have talked about their plan to set him up. Who else was in on it?

"

_**Author's Note: the Amy Tyler mentioned is the same Amy Tyler that was June Stahl's girlfriend on the TV show.**_


	8. Chapter 8 Ava Gets Mailed

6

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 8 **_**Ava Gets Mailed**_

"

Ava's father had to go to Los Angeles so she went along and showed him more of her new and improved behavior. What she really wanted to do was visit her friends, party and have fun, but she told herself over and over that giving up a little fun now would be well worth it if she could get her father to change his will back, so she wouldn't have to go through with her planned marriage.

Her behavior wasn't as bad as it could have been. She'd never been arrested, pregnant, or been to rehab. A lot of her friends couldn't make the same claim. Her parties tended to end up with property damage. Of all the bad things she could have done, that was pretty minor. The time she held a petting zoo inside the house wasn't one of her best moments, but that was an isolated incident of epic property damage.

The gathering she'd had with the bikers didn't result in that much property damage. It wasn't as though she let the bikers drive through the castle on their bikes. Her father had no sense of proportion.

It was his fault that she damaged the houses they lived in. He never even asked her about moving. Just one day movers would show up. She had no say in where they lived. Same with how her room was even decorated. She'd asked to decorate her room and he'd told her to talk to the interior decorator, but he never gave her the number and her room was always decorated in yellow.

The particular shade of yellow that was used was always the color of piss. No one should have to live in a piss yellow room. How could she be expected to have a good day when she had to wake up to that?

She didn't really like her friends much. Her father paid her credit card bills—she had a whopping $5000 monthly limit on the card. That was it. How did he expect her to dress nicely, eat lunch out with her friends and do anything on that? She couldn't even buy a decent outfit.

Her father may have tons of money, but she didn't and her friends judged her for that. They considered her poor because she didn't have a multimillion dollar trust fund at her disposal. Are friends really friends if they are people you don't like and don't trust? If that were true, she didn't have any friends then.

When she returned to Charming with her father, she was a lot less than happy. She did have a surprise waiting for her when she returned. There was a letter waiting for her. An actual letter. How quaint! It even had actual handwriting on it not a computer label. She couldn't remember if she'd ever received an actual letter from a real person.

The writing was nice and neat. She looked up at the return address and her enthusiasm waned. It was from Jax. For a moment she wondered if he had decided he didn't want to go through with the marriage plan. She felt disappointed. She would have to start the hunt for someone all over again.

She tried opening the envelope neatly, but somehow the envelope wouldn't open and she had to tear it almost in two to get it open. They should let prisoners have decent envelopes that people could open without tearing them all up.

Her hands shook as she began reading the letter. She didn't want to have to find another inmate to marry, but given how much he was going to cost her it wouldn't be the end of the world. She had to hand it to him though, the way the deal was structured it helped both of them because by giving him a piece of her inheritance, it gave him a great motive to keep his mouth closed about the true nature of their relationship.

It was a perfectly nice letter. As far as she could tell, the spelling and grammar were correct. It had a nice tone to it. It just said that he'd enjoyed seeing her when she'd come with his attorney Ellie Lowen. He told her that he'd added her to his visitor's list and it could take a week or two to get approved. He said he would call her or write her and let her know when she was approved.

His letter added that he hoped to hear from her but if she'd changed her mind about visiting him or writing to him, he would understand. His prison sentence was a long one.

There was just something about the way he phrased things that that hit her. Twenty years in jail seemed like an eternity to her. She wondered what he'd done to get locked up for such a long time. She thought about asking Ellie Lowen, but decided to wait until she met with him alone in prison for the first time. The idea made her stomach turn. Prison was a scary place to visit especially having to go by herself.

She wondered if his hands would be torn up the next time she saw him and his face battered. It would be a horrible way to live. It was a good thing he had all those bulging muscles. It wasn't like she was ever going to have to deal with all those rock hard lumps that he had under his clothes.

She decided she should write back because it had to look like a friendship that quickly blossomed into love. Was there ever a Hallmark movie that started in prison? No Hallmark romance guy ever looked like Jax Teller. Too much sex appeal. He would scare the hell out of those virginal heroines. Even the ones with kids always seemed like they never had sex to have had the kid.

Maybe Jax Teller caged was a good thing. With that guy on the loose, women would not be safe. She didn't think he would force himself on a woman, but he'd give her some sort of knowing smile and her clothes would just slide off her body.

This was not going to happen to her. This would be a marriage in name only. There would be no naked times with Jax. Thank God!

She opened her desk and looked for notepaper and envelopes. There wasn't any. She realized that just as getting a letter was a novelty so was writing an actual letter. The only time she'd ever written a letter was in school for some English assignment and she'd used notebook paper.

The next day Ava went and bought some pretty stationery with soft watercolor images of flowers with matching envelopes and sent Jax a nice note saying that of course she still wanted to see him. She said she believed in him.

A few letters later, Ava got the letter she was waiting for and dreading at the same time; Jax had gotten her approved as a visitor.

He explained the procedures for visiting the prison cautioning her to make sure they were allowing visitations. Sometimes the prison went on lock down and visitors weren't allowed. He added that if she wanted anything to eat or drink, she needed to bring change and small bills. The machines didn't take bank cards and he wasn't allowed to have money.

Prisons were just inhumane. What kind of place didn't let people have money or bank cards? Prisons. She got it. Prison wasn't a good place to be. She was beginning to have some understanding of just how horrible they were.

The next visiting day was Saturday only three days away. She had to go see Jax. It would take several visits before she could go to her father and announce her engagement. Still, her stomach turned at the thought.

It wasn't a real marriage, she reassured herself. It was only three years and it was better than working for a living or going to school.

She repeated this over and over to herself like a mantra as she waited in line for her first alone meeting with Jax. She hoped he'd throttled back some of the testosterone or it was going to be a long visit.


	9. Chapter 9 Toxic Masculinity

7

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 9 **_**Toxic Masculinity**_

"

Today's visitation was outside. There were a number of long picnic tables, some smaller tables with the chairs attached and a couple of smaller tables that would fit two people. Ava walked promptly to one of the smaller tables. The tables were about half full. None of the prisoners had arrived yet. She had actually gotten to the prison early because she mixed up the times. She tried to never get anywhere early. She liked it when people had to wait for her.

She stared at her nails. No one in Charming knew how to do her nails properly. Her manicure was only two days old and the polish was already chipped. Chipped nails were an offense to her eyes. She tried not to look but found herself staring at the chip in her dark purple thumb nail's polish.

The men were brought in escorted by guards and already unchained. Ava hid her disappointment. She liked watching Jax get unchained. She wasn't sure why, but she really enjoyed it.

Ava looked at the men checking to see how Jax measured up to the other prisoners. None of them had that testosterone overload that he had. Most were average looking, not remarkable in any way. There were a few that were large, but none of them had Jax Teller's good looks even if he did have a beard and tattoos.

Finally, he appeared wearing the normal orange shirt over a white T-shirt and orange pants. His blonde hair had been cut short almost shaved. She looked at it trying not to stare. She decided if she had to choose between the two extremes, she preferred his hair long. He had his beard. She still wished that would go away.

"You got your hair cut," Ava said.

"I asked for a trim and look what I got instead," Jax said dryly.

"It's really short."

"The haircutting talents of the inmate barbers tend to be limited."

"You mean other inmates cut your hair?"

"What do you think a real barber comes here and cuts our hair so we look nice for each other?"

"It's just so uncivilized."

"There's a reason it's called prison and not a spa retreat."

Ava noticed the eyes of the guards on them. It made her feel uneasy. What did the guards think she was going to do? Or were they worried about Jax?

"Why do the guards keep looking at us?"

"You're the best looking female here. They are also watching everyone to make sure violence doesn't break out."

"Is that likely to happen?"

"You never know," Jax said. "Family situations can turn explosive."

"These seats are so uncomfortable with the table and seats being connected."

"You know why that is?" Jax asked. "It's to keep people from using the chairs as weapons."

She looked around again. Even the guards didn't have the testosterone leakage problem like Jax. She wondered if he could dial down the masculinity and be more normal like the nice guys in the Hallmark movies she loved so much.

"Are you always so . . .?"

"What?"

"Masculine. Have you heard of toxic masculinity?" she asked seriously. "I think you might have it."

"Toxic masculinity?" Jax scoffed. "How exactly can a man be too male?"

Ava should have known that a man like Jax Teller would not be woke. Well, she would just have to wake him.

"Men can be too masculine. It's called toxic masculinity. It makes women uncomfortable."

"Are you comfortable with my level of masculinity, darlin'?"

"No, now that you've asked me I'm not."

"How exactly do you suggest I detoxify my masculinity to an acceptable level for you?" Jax asked with an amused smile on his face.

Jax thought toxic masculinity was the most ridiculous thing he'd every heard of in years. It was just more bullshit thought up by people with too few brains and too much time on their hands. In his world, men were supposed to be tough and strong. Those were traits that were valued.

"I don't know how to detoxify masculinity. Maybe there's a book or something online. I'll ask my phone later. It knows everything."

"Ask your phone how I'm going to get out of prison for a crime I didn't commit. That's all I care about right now."

"OK," she said sullenly. "I get it. All you're focused on is getting out of prison."

Jax shook his head in exasperation.

"Wouldn't you be if you were innocent and in prison?"

"Yes."

"Do you know anything about my case?"

"No."

"You're going to need to know. Get Lowen to give you a copy of my file."

"OK," Ava said with a marked lack of enthusiasm.

"What do you do all day?"

"Before we moved to Charming, I would get up and eat breakfast. My personal trainer would come over and train me in my father's gym. I'd meet friends for lunch, maybe go shopping, then dinner out and clubbing. I don't have any friends in Charming. The town doesn't even have a club. Just some bars that aren't very nice."

"How the hell did you end up in SAMCRO's clubhouse?"

"I asked around town and everyone told me that the most fun a girl could have was at this biker club's clubhouse on Friday night. I grabbed a bottle of Scotch and a bottle of tequila and walked into the clubhouse."

"Do you know the difference between an outlaw biker club and a regular motorcycle club?"

"I didn't know there were two types."

"If you are so worried about toxic masculinity, you should stay the hell out of MC clubhouses.

Ava's eyes widened.

""Do you think they could be dangerous?"

"No, an outlaw biker's clubhouse is exactly like a Sunday school only with less God."

"You're making fun of me."

"Smart girl."

Jax patiently explained the difference between a regular biker and an outlaw biker club.

"Now it's safe to assume that inside every outlaw biker club's clubhouse are men with high levels of toxic masculinity."

Ava thought back to her two visits to the bikers' clubhouse. Jax might be right. While the guys were nice, they did seem to have high levels of masculinity—not as high as Jax's—but still far more than she was comfortable being around. It was definitely in the toxic masculinity range.

"I was just looking for a little fun."

"You will get more fun than you can handle if you end up in the wrong clubhouse. You heard about me at the clubhouse?"

She nodded and tucked a strand of russet colored hair behind her ear.

"They said you were in for 20 years and were innocent. When my problem with my father came up, I thought marrying you would be perfect."

"What story are you telling your father?"

"A form of the truth. I saw your picture and heard you were innocent. I mentioned it when I met with Ellie Lowen over my father's will. It turned out she was your attorney. She brought me with her a couple of times when she met with you about your case. We started writing and I started visiting you."

"OK. That is pretty close to the truth. I'm going to say that Ellie mentioned some girl wanted to meet me. She brought you twice. We struck up a friendship, started writing and then you started visiting."

"How long do you think we're going to have to see each other before we get married?"

"How long does it usually take you to fall in love?"

"A few minutes," Ava said. "What about you?"

"I've never been in love. I think my longest relationship was five weeks."

"My longest relationship was three weeks and he was gone on a work trip for one of those weeks."

Jax laughed at her chose of words.

"So we have something in common. We've never had a relationship longer than a few weeks. I think maybe two months of visiting and letters. We can get engaged and then married in another month. We can do the old we started out as friends and love happened."

"OK," she agreed. "I'm having dinner with my father tonight and I'll mention you to him."

"I don't know anything about your father other than he has some money."

"He has hundreds of millions, but he's very cheap and gives me very little money. He won't give me a trust fund."

"Rough life," Jax said saracastically. "How can you pay me then?"

"My mom left me some money. It was left over from their divorce. It's enough to pay you."

"OK. How do you know that if you fulfill the terms of your father's will, he won't decide one day to write you out of his will completely?"

Ava's mouth dropped open. Her father would never do something like that to her. Then again, she never thought he would have done this to her forcing her to get married to stay in his will.

"I never thought of that."

"You need to get him to put some money aside so that if you fulfill the terms of his will, you get that money either after a certain number of years or on his death."

"Why didn't Lowen suggest that?"

Jax leaned forward.

"Do you think first rate attorneys work out of a law office in Charming?"

"That's a good point. Is that what happened to you? She didn't do a good job with your case."

"Understatement of the year. She's a shit attorney. As soon as I can find another attorney, I'm firing her and her idiot partner."

"My father only does civil law not criminal, but I'm sure he knows of some good criminal attorneys."

"Does he know any good investigators? I need someone to dig into the two ATF agents that set me up."

"I don't have much to do in Charming. I'm so bored. I guess I could look at your case and talk to him about it. I know he uses investigators. He may know of someone."

"That would be good for me and our story."

Visiting time was over. They both stood up and Jax kissed her lightly on the cheek.

"Next visit, I'll kiss you on the cheek when we first meet and kiss you on the lips when you leave."

Ava looked at him. Her heart was racing. He desperately needed to do something with his toxic masculinity. It might get completely out of control. She didn't want to be around if that happened.


	10. Chapter 10 Engagement

5

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 10 **_**Engagement**_

"

TB wasn't much of a father, but still he believed he knew his daughter well. She tried to casually mention that she'd spent part of the last three Saturdays visiting a man who had been wrongly convicted of something she hadn't mentioned. She was working on angle. She'd found some prisoner through the attorney she'd hired to review the changes in his will with her and the prisoner would be in jail for well over the three years she had to stay married to collect her inheritance.

His plan was working perfectly. Since he'd put the fear of God into his daughter, her behavior had improved dramatically. No more property damage and for the first time in her life, she had made a plan and she had a goal. If she thought marrying a convict to get her inheritance was what she needed to do, then that's exactly what he was going to let her do.

He had no doubt that she was hoping that when she told him that she was going to marry a convict, he would insist that she not go through with it and he would put her back in his will without conditions. He had no intention of doing that. If she wanted to spend three years in a fake marriage to an inmate, then she could do that.

She might not like the terms he was going to set for her marriage. Obviously, her inmate husband wouldn't be able to support her and she couldn't support herself. That meant she would have to continue to live with him. As a respectable married woman, that would mean she would have to conduct herself as a married woman. No partying and no dating of course. In short, he would have more control over her now than he had ever had before.

He didn't want his daughter to lose out on her inheritance. He wanted her to grow up and be more responsible. Maybe marrying a convict would do just that. She would have to keep up the pretense of a marriage. That meant she would have to write him letters and go to the prison every week to visit him. That would give her life some structure.

He didn't think she would be able to be that disciplined for three years, but if she fulfilled the terms of his new will, she would inherit. He was hoping to get a new and improved daughter. If that meant she married a convict, then so be it.

"

"********************************************************"

"

Ava was beginning to enjoy her plan. She had always been able to read her father like a picture book. When she told him she'd met a prison inmate who was wrongly incarcerated, he didn't pay much attention. She added that he was wrongly convicted. Still not much interest. That was OK. At their next weekly dinner, she would mention more abut Jax and his wrongful conviction. By then, she would have looked a little at his case so she could discuss it with him.

Monday, she picked up copies of all of Jax's case files from Ellie Lowen. She wondered what she would do if she found something in his file that would get him released from prison immediately. That could be a dilemma or not. She didn't think she was a good enough person to tell him what she found. She'd tell him after the three years or maybe 2 1/2 years because he wouldn't be able to get out instantly. She might not be a good person, but she wasn't completely horrible—unless he started being really mean and annoying to her. And then who knows what she'd do? He might do the whole twenty years innocent or not.

She saw a transcript of his testimony. She was hoping that there would be a video of it so she wouldn't have to read it all. Her eyes got tired when she looked at how long the transcript was. The only part that really mattered was his testimony.

She made a face as she read the part about how he'd climbed into a car with June Stahl, undercover ATF agent, who he claimed was going to give him a blowjob. What the hell was it with men getting their dicks sucked? She shook her head with disgust. She remembered reading in a fashion magazine about this woman who was a hooker and she'd given so many blowjobs she had TMJ and had to have surgery or had to get her jaw wired shut. Maybe she had to have both surgery and a wired shut jaw while it healed.

Her sympathy for Jax was definitely lacking when she found out he'd gotten into a car with a woman he barely knew because he thought she was going to suck his dick. She didn't know who had started all this licking and sucking of the genitals stuff, but it was highly unsanitary. Who knew what kinds of germs were roaming around that area? Sex was enough of a germ laden task without adding licking and sucking to the mix. Sometimes she hated men.

Jax sent her another letter and she wrote back. He also called for the first time. She preferred talking to him on the phone to seeing him in person. There was less toxic masculinity to deal with since she couldn't see him. It was still there though lurking in the background.

She did ask her phone about detoxifying toxic masculinity. There had been a list of attributes to use to detoxify masculinity, but the more she read them, the more she thought that there was a misunderstanding. Those were characteristics of toxic masculinity because she recognized them in Jax and there was no way that she was wrong about Jax having toxic masculinity. Life sucked when you couldn't trust your phone for the answers that really mattered in life.

The weeks passed in this pattern of visiting the prison, writing a letter and talking to Jax once a week. During her weekly dinners with her father, she would drop Jax's name into the conversation. She even began mentioning that she believed him when he said he was innocent.

The weeks dragged on until finally at the two month mark, they got engaged. He hadn't even pretended to propose. Jax told her this was the eight week anniversary of their first solo prison meeting and that meant they were engaged. It was definitely not the romantic proposal of her dreams.

When she got engaged, she wanted it to be somewhere romantic like in a gondola on the canals of Venice, maybe the Egyptian pyramids at night or in a castle in Germany. Never in a million years could she have imagined getting engaged in a prison yard. Her humiliation level was high and it was only going to get higher if she actually had to go through with a wedding.

On Sunday when she had her weekly dinner with her father, she announced her engagement. She expected him to be disgusted. She expected him to insist that she end her engagement immediately. She never expected that her father would want to meet Jax.


	11. Chapter 11 Meeting Gemma

6

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 11 Meeting Gemma **

"

There were certain things about getting married that Ava hadn't considered like meeting Jax's parents. It simply had never occurred to her that she would need to meet his parents. They had nothing to do with her or her future marriage. She still had trouble even thinking of getting married without throwing up a little in her mind.

She never saw marriage as a happy joyous union of two people who loved each other. Romances were temporary that ended in a break-up or divorce, but the bottom line was they ended. All you had to do was pick yourself and move on. There was always someone better around the corner.

She had always valued her freedom above the fake stability of marriage. She'd met guys' parents but that had usually been because they were classmates' parents or her father knew them through business dealings. She'd never met parents because the relationship was getting serious. Her relationships didn't last that long.

If she had her way, she wouldn't meet Jax's mother and his stepfather but the engagement was supposed to look real and it would look funny if she didn't meet them especially since they lived in Charming.

She was going to be at her least charming when she met them. She didn't need to go to all that trouble. Regular Ava was already pretty unpleasant.

She wanted to make sure that Gemma and Clay didn't think of her as a daughter because she was married to Jax. Her plan was to go have lunch and make Gemma dislike her enough so that she didn't invite her to family dinner or any holiday type stuff. As far as she was concerned, she'd speak to Gemma every couple of months for a few minutes and that was all the contact there would be.

It wasn't like the way she treated Gemma and Clay mattered. They could hate her all they wanted; Jax was still going to marry her. That's why she was giving him a hell of a lot of money to marry her.

Ava was supposed to meet Gemma at TM at noon. She showed up twenty minutes late because only unimportant people were on time. She was dressed in all her label loving finery—not that Gemma would appreciate it. She doubted Gemma even knew the difference between Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin.

She wore a black Chanel jacket, a metallic gray leather Prada mini-skirt, a Versace logo T-shirt, Gucci patterned tights and Christian Louboutin black booties. She was carrying the black alligator Birkin bag her father had given her for her birthday. She didn't really like the bag. She would have preferred a less heavy shoulder bag, but this was the highly coveted bag that women dreamed of so that's the one she had to carry.

Clothes—specifically designer clothes—were one of the ways the rich let the poor know just how poor they were. Due to her father's cheapness, sometimes it would take her a couple of months to buy a whole outfit. She had to mix and match to stretch her wardrobe. He was just so damned cheap.

One of the other ways the rich flaunted their wealth was eating in expensive restaurants. There were no expensive elite places to eat in Charming. There wasn't even a Starbucks.

Why wasn't there a Starbuck's? Was their something defective about this town? She hoped her father would realize that Charming was anything but charming and he would move them somewhere else like San Francisco to a huge gated mansion.

Ava walked into TM's with her russet hair straightened into a glossy shining curtain and her make-up was flawlessly applied.

She wasn't impressed with the place. It was exactly like a garage's waiting room looked on TV shows—dingy walls, a small sofa stained with oil and dirt, a couple of chairs, a metal desk and some filing cabinets.

She also wasn't impressed with the woman behind the desk. She had on badly applied make up clumpy black mascara, orange blush and a strange colored lipstick that was kind of brown, kind of purple and clashed with the clown blush. Her brown hair had ugly white blonde streaks. How could anyone think that brown and white hair was an attractive look? What the hell was wrong with people?

"I'm looking for Gemma Teller," she said. "My name's Ava Becker."

Jax had mentioned Ava occasionally to Gemma when she visited him or talked to her on the phone. She was shocked when he suddenly announced he was going to marry her.

Gemma couldn't figure out why Jax wanted to get married until she saw Ava. She might not know much about designer clothes other than Chanel, but she knew expensive clothes when she saw them. Jax was marrying Ava for her money.

She was relieved. That made sense finally. It was going to take a lot of money to get Jax's conviction tossed. Jax's new wife was going to supply the money he needed to get out of prison.

Gemma didn't point out that Ava was late. She was going to find a way to get along with her no matter what—at least until her money helped Jax get out of prison. After that, it was going to be a different story.

"I'm Gemma. Clay had some emergency towing business. Maybe he'll be back in time to meet you when we get back from lunch."

"OK," Ava said.

"I thought we could just grab some fast food from my favorite fast food place Burger Galaxy."

"OK," Ava said.

"I'll drive," Gemma said.

Gemma felt her temper rise each time Ava said "OK" in a bored tone of voice. She might bitch slap her if she said it again. She reminded herself that she needed to get along with her. Jax's getting out of prison could depend on it.

Over burgers, fries and diet Coke, Gemma and Ava spent a quiet and difficult lunch. Ava didn't ask a single question. She left the job of making conversation to Gemma. This was part of her strategy to make Gemma not want to spend any time with her.

Ava took two bites out of the greasy hamburger and had enough. She'd eaten fast food before, but they didn't have proper fast food in town. There were no national chains. That where people were supposed to go for hamburgers. This place was the generic version of hamburgers.

Her fries weren't much better. They were pale yellow and limp. She didn't even finish one. She would be glad when she got home and got the chef to make her something to eat. Her father may be cheap, but he always had a private chef to make his meals. He preferred that to wasting his time going out. Less wasted time meant he could get more work done.

"You didn't eat very much," Gemma said.

"Always on a diet. I need to find a personal trainer or my body is going to go to hell," Ava said in her longest answer of the lunch.

Gemma wanted to say "better hurry", but this woman was the way that Jax was going to get out of jail. Once he was free, she would break that marriage up in record time.

The lunch was finally over. Gemma noticed that Clay was back at TM but decided not to introduce Ava to him until she had a chance to explain that Jax was marrying her for her money or he might say something insulting to her.

"Too bad. Clay's not here," Gemma said quickly.

"Uh-huh," Ava said. "I need to leave."

"It was nice meeting you," Gemma said.

Ava smiled. "I get that a lot."

Ava got out of Gemma's car without a backwards glance and drove off in her Ferrari.

"Bitch," Gemma hissed.

Once Jax got out of prison, she was going to cut herself a big old piece of payback.

"

**Next Chapter: Jax meets Ava's father.**

_**Author's Note: I know that Ava isn't very likeable. She isn't supposed to be because Jax has taming to do and that's where the fun comes in. Also, imagine what Gemma's going to do to her when she doesn't have to be nice to her anymore.**_

_**Jax isn't the great prize he is in Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run. That Jax is a great guy because he had the advantage of having had a girlfriend at a young age and learned about how a girl should be treated. This version of Jax didn't have that. He's got more of an MC mind set about a woman's place. He's oozing with toxic masculinity.**_


	12. Chapter 12 When TB Met Jax

7

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 12 When TB Met Jax **

"

Ava was very nervous. Her father not only wanted to meet Jax, he wanted to meet him alone. That couldn't possibly be good, but she couldn't do anything about it. She was worried that her father would figure out she was just marrying Jax to fulfill the terms of his will. He could add a clause that she couldn't marry an inmate in a correctional institution.

Her father could offer to buy off Jax. She wondered how much money it would take to get Jax to forget marrying her and take her father's deal. Her father was cheap, but when he really wanted something, money was no object. Was buying Jax off worth more than the $500,000 she was paying him? Surely her father wouldn't offer him that much money. She didn't think she was worth that much to him.

As an attorney, her father was quickly approved for a private legal visit with Jax. That would allow them to talk more openly.

Ava shut her eyes. This was going to be bad. Really bad. She began to pace nervously wondering what was going on in this meeting. She wouldn't be able to find out what happened from Jax over the phone. Those conversations were recorded. She wouldn't find out for almost three days when she had her weekly visit with him at the prison.

TB had met a few clients in prison when he'd done a little criminal law early in his career before going into the much better paying class action suit business. The procedures hadn't changed much in the more than twenty years since he'd last visited a client in prison.

He waited in the small private room for Jax. He didn't have any preconceived ideas about Jax Teller. Ava told him that he was in prison for some kind of sale of a gun that was a set up. She was pretty vague about the reason. That was typical Ava. She wasn't interested in anything except herself.

While Jax was being unchained, TB studied his future son in law. He wasn't Ava's type. She liked her guys average height, thin and a little on the effeminate side. Jax Teller was none of these things. Tall, blonde, muscular and definitely not effeminate. He was good looking and had a toughness about him. He'd been right when he thought that Ava was trying to play him by marrying an inmate. This guy wasn't her type.

He waited until the guard finished unchaining Jax and left them alone before extending his hand.

"I'm Tom Becker, Ava's father. Call me TB."

Jax shook his hand.

"I'm Jax Teller, Ava's future husband."

"Good to meet you," TB said.

They sat down on opposite sides of the table.

"It's nice meeting you," Jax said.

He looked at TB and could see the resemblance to Ava. He had the same russet hair color and blue-green eyes. He was wearing a navy suit with a white shirt with narrow blue stripes and a blue tie—typical lawyer attire. He also carried a small black briefcase.

"So, my daughter really wants to marry you," he said.

"I'm surprised too," Jax said. "I have a twenty year sentence. I can't see making a woman like Ava—any woman—wait twenty years for her husband to get out of prison. She insists that she knows I'm innocent and am going to get out."

TB nodded his head. The guy was good. He was saying all the right things and he appeared sincere. He wondered how much Ava was paying him to marry her. It was definitely more than commissary money.

"So are you innocent?"

"I am. I got into a car with an undercover ATF agent. The next thing I know she said I tried to sell her an illegal firearm. I didn't even have a gun on me."

TB thought that over.

"That would make you innocent and the agent guilty of entrapment and some other crimes. I haven't practiced criminal law in a couple of decades. I will have one of my attorneys look over your case. If he thinks you're innocent, we'll get you out of prison."

"Just like that?" Jax asked skeptically. It sounded too good to be true. There had to be some kind of catch.

"It isn't instantaneous. With my connections, I could get it done in a couple of months."

"A couple of months?" Jax stared at TB. This was either the best news he'd gotten since his conviction or this guy was playing a very twisted game with him.

"A lot of people owe me favors. I can get through the normal court delays pretty fast. I've also got a pretty high media profile that I can use to help."

Jax never expected the meeting with Ava's father to go like this. He expected him to offer him money to not marry Ava or, at the very least, try to talk him out of marrying her.

"Are you OK with your daughter marrying me?"

"If you are the man she wants to marry, I'm not going to stand in her way."

That was the moment when Jax knew that Ava's father realized that she was only marrying him to fulfill the terms of his will. Ava's father was no one's fool. He was very smart.

"Are you serious about helping me?"

"If you're innocent, I will get you out. I hated criminal law. People with money walk and people without get locked up. Justice may be blind, but she can smell money."

TB was a fair man. He didn't blame Jax if he were marrying Ava for money in order to use it to pay for an appeal and his legal expenses. Only in criminal law can you be found not guilty and still lose when your legal fees cost you your house and every penny you've spent your entire life saving.

"I wasn't just set up. I think my attorney didn't do her job. I wanted her to investigate the two ATF agents that set me up. She didn't do that. She didn't even ask them any questions at the trial."

"I would suggest using your attorney's lack of competence as a last resort. Give me a couple of weeks to have your case reviewed. We'll come up with a strategy that will work."

"I want to hire an investigator to dig into the two ATF agents."

"If you were set up, my team of investigators will tear into the ATF agents. I only hire the best and these investigators are excellent. I will also get the best criminal and appellate attorneys in the country on your case."

No one had ever helped Jax much in his life. TB was promising to give him a huge amount of support and he claimed to have the connections to help him and quickly. Could this be real? Could he trust him to come through for him?

"Are you Santa Claus?"

TB laughed.

"I know it sounds too good to be true, but if you're innocent I want to get you out for my daughter's sake and for yours. You shouldn't have to pay for a crime you didn't commit because you had a terrible attorney and were set up by the ATF. I'm guessing that the ATF was offering to drop the charges if you would rollover on someone."

Jax nodded.

"That was their real goal. They didn't count on my refusal to help them. I'm still getting visits from them offering legal help if I give them some information."

"You belong to some motorcycle club."

"Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Originals. My father was a founding member."

"Outlaw?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem for you?"

"No. People think that the law is about right and wrong and fairness. It's not. It's about rules. I use the rules and bend them as much as I can to get the results I want. I see the appeal of living a life free from rules. I'm not going to ask if you've ever done anything outside the law that you might or should have gone to jail for. All I care about is whether or not you are innocent of the charges you got convicted on."

"And you're going to give me all this help because I'm going to marry your daughter?"

"I'm going to give you this help if you're innocent _after_ you marry my daughter."

This was not at all what Jax was expecting. He expected TB to offer him money to not marry Ava or to offer him all this help if he _didn't_ marry his daughter. He never imagined that he was offering his legal help _after_ he married Ava. For some reason, TB wanted him to marry his daughter. It was a very strange set of circumstances but he wasn't complaining. TB's help just might get him out of prison.

TB opened his briefcase and pulled out a paper. He put it down in front of Jax.

"This makes me one of your attorneys. I want to get all your files from your attorney. I'll send someone to her office unannounced to pick up all the files. I've found that sometimes pieces of paper get misplaced if you depend on the attorney for the copy."

Jax quickly read the document before signing it.

"One last thing," TB said. "Don't tell Ava about how I'm going to give you all this legal help to get you out of prison. I wouldn't want to get her hopes up and then have it fall through. I want her to be surprised when I get you out of prison."

"Deal."

TB thought Jax would make Ava an excellent husband at least for three years or so. He had the toughness to straighten her out. All he had to do was get him out of prison.

"

_**Caution: Plot twist in the next chapter.**_


	13. Chapter 13 Backstabbers

6

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 13 **_**Backstabbers**_

"

The color from Ellie Lowen's face drained when she was shown the paper Jax had signed instructing her to turn over all his legal records to Tom Becker or his representatives. She'd tried to stall for time, but the man he'd sent to get the records knew the law and explained why she needed to comply with turning the records over. More importantly, he explained what would happen if she failed to turn them over immediately. Left with no choice, she turned the records over.

"I need to talk to you," Ellie said calling from her office phone.

"You always want to talk to the outlaw."

"This isn't like that. It's bad. We may have a serious problem."

"Your house. Twenty minutes."

"OK."

Ellie Lowen got in her car and drove to her little one bedroom house tucked off a gravel road behind some towering oleander bushes. She always liked the feeling of seclusion. Now she felt fear. Someone could kill her and no one would hear her scream. Could he be that angry with her?

She set up a camera that would cover the area as an insurance policy less against her murder and more for the future.

She heard his motorcycle pulling up to her house, turned the camera on and flung open the door.

"You are jumpy," Clay said.

"Wait until I tell you what I know and you will be too," Ellie said. She closed the door behind him and turned to face him. "You know Jax is marrying this little rich bitch Ava to pay for his appeal on his conviction."

"I remember," Clay said impatiently.

"Today, her father sent an attorney to pick up all of Jax's files. I tried to stall, but I couldn't. I had to turn them over."

"There's nothing incriminating in them is there?" Clay said with an edge to his voice.

"Yes, there is. I thought if I ever had to turn over his files to someone, I'd have plenty of time to rewrite them. That rich bitch's father is reviewing Jax's case. I was actually doing my job as his defense attorney until . . ."

"I persuaded you otherwise."

"That's right."

"How bad can it be? So they find things in Jax's files that point to his innocence, it's still going to take years before his appeal gets heard."

"One of his grounds of appeal will be ineffective assistance of counsel. That's going to destroy my legal career."

"That's a you problem. Not a me problem."

"It's an us problem. Jax could come after me or have someone come after me for what I did for you."

What Clay didn't know was Ellie was on thin ice with the California Bar Association. She was fighting to keep her law license. The last thing she needed was an ineffective assistance of counsel appellate issue.

Any competent attorney would find all the holes in Jax's case and those were just the ones she knew about. This was Clay's fault.

She approached Jax's defense like she wanted to win the case. She'd gotten most of the case prep done when Clay suggested she let Jax get convicted. She billed the MC for hours she didn't work and split the additional $50,000 with Clay. The MC paid $100,000 for Jax's defense. Not only had she tanked Jax's defense, she'd stolen from the MC to benefit herself and Clay.

The financial fraud was not that big a deal. White collar crimes drew very little punishment because the laws are written by future white collar criminals—attorneys and elected officials. California was currently lost in a crime Renaissance. There was a view that only those convicted of violent crimes should be locked up. It was a great thing for non violent criminals. If her little fraud ever got discovered, she'd get a slap on the wrist in the form of a fine and maybe some community service. That was only if she got caught.

If the MC found out she'd billed for hours she didn't work, that might be a very bad problem. Outlaw biker clubs tended to take a dim and violent view of someone stealing from them. For someone to spot what she'd done with the hours billed, a person would have to match the hours she worked in the file compared to the hours she'd invoiced the club for. Clay approved all of her bills. They had both stolen from the MC. She would take him down with her.

She could have been tougher and refused to give up Jax's files, but there was no legal justification. That could be another charge against her with the bar association.

"You fucked up Jax's defense. He'll do five or six years in prison and get out if his case gets thrown out. By that time, I will have the money I need from the club."

"That Ava's father has a lot of money and power. He might be able to get Jax's appeal expedited."

"Why don't you find her another inmate to marry? That would torpedo Jax's appeal. He wouldn't have the money and he'd just stay locked up."

"It isn't that easy. The plans are too far along," Ellie said.

"Maybe Ava has an accident. There would be no wife to marry."

"I'm not going along with murder. I haven't done anything to get locked up for and I'm not going to be part of murder."

"Who said anything about murder? I was just hoping that she has a fatal accident."

"Her father would be all over that. He would send in teams of people to find out the truth. These aren't regular Charming citizens that you can mess with," Ellie said. She needed to get through to Clay that killing Ava wasn't the solution to their problem. Murder drew actual jail time.

"Fuck it," Clay said. "You might be in a little trouble for not doing a good job. Claim a drug addiction."

"That would make me covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I might not even get into trouble with the bar. I'm not sure what the law is in this area. Maybe it will be OK."

"See, you're worried about nothing. Jax is going to stay in prison where he belongs."

"Where you paid me to put him by throwing his case, not investigating the ATF agents and not questioning them during the trial."

"I remember. It was worth every penny to be rid of Jax's interfering in my running my club. I hope the little prince does every day of his twenty year sentence."

"He really was innocent," Ellie said.

"Of that," Clay said chuckling. "Having the ATF set him up was a gift from the Gods. I knew he'd never rollover on the MC. It was a perfect solution to my Jax problem."

"Once you paid me to throw the case."

"Hell, you probably would have fucked up the case anyway," Clay said. "You sure as hell didn't hesitate when I suggested you bill the MC for hours you didn't work and take that as your fee for throwing the case. You are losing it over nothing. So they find out you didn't do a good job with Jax's case. What do they expect? You're a drug addict."

"That did work out well for my partner when we got back from a lunch break and the judge could see the coke on his nose from the bench."

"That's all you need to do. Coke up your nose a little and nothing's your fault. You have a disability."

Clay always had a unique way of looking at things. She was worried for no reason. Worse case, Jax just thinks she's a terrible attorney. He might already think that after his trial.

"You're right. I'm worried over nothing."

Ellie had gotten Clay to admit to every part of what he'd paid her to do. It was clearly spelled out. This was going to be her insurance policy if he ever tried to screw her over.

Clay walked over to her. She could feel her heart pound hard. She knew that look in his eyes and what was going to come next.

"Take off your skirt," Clay ordered.

"No."

Clay grabbed her, wrenching her arm behind her back. He tore at the button at her skirt and unzipped it. Using one hand he pulled it roughly down over her hips. She wore what he liked—just a garter belt and stockings without underwear.

He released her arm and kicked the desk chair across the room before grabbing her and bending her over the desk. She knew this was so wrong on so many levels, but she just couldn't resist. Sex with Clay Morrow was dirty, disgusting and degrading. It was everything sex should be with a little extra.

He unzipped his fly and began pounding away. She knew this was probably sick and mentally unhealthy, but she enjoyed every sick, twisted, messed up moment. When he was done, he slapped her on the ass and left without saying a word.

All she could think of was how much she wanted to talk to the outlaw again.


	14. Chapter 14 Parental Approval

5

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 14 Parental Approval Never Felt So Bad**

"

Ava hadn't had a chance to talk to her father about his meeting with Jax. Normally they had dinner on Sunday, but as soon as he talked to Jax he flew to Dallas for business.

Her visit with Jax wasn't very helpful either. He told her that he had gotten along well with her father. He didn't know her father. She couldn't believe that a convict would get along with her father. She was his daughter and she had trouble getting along with him.

She still held out hope that her father would decide he couldn't let her marry a convict and stop her. He would then give her a trust fund and she could be off to live a life of fun far away from Uncharming. Parties, shopping and clubs. She felt like she was a zombie in Charming barely living her life because there was little life to be had in this dump of a small town.

Finally, her father returned from his business trip and they sat down for dinner where she could finally find out what happened during his meeting with Jax. Over salad, he brought up the subject of his will.

Ava felt her heartbeat quicken. This was it. He was going to tell her that he wasn't changing his will. She wouldn't have to marry a Toxic Male convict.

"I think that your attorney may not be very good," TB began. "You can keep her or change attorneys or at least get a second opinion. Of course, I'll pay for it. I want to finalize my will before you get married. You need to find an attorney in the next couple of days. I'll text you a list of a couple in San Francisco. I'm working from home this next week. You can take the car into San Francisco."

"Thanks," Ava said curtly.

It was considerate of her father to let her have the car and driver to go into San Francisco. It was a nightmare to drive into the city and then find an office building. Even with GPS, finding a new place was tricky for Ava. She had some issues with left and right and San Francisco had a lot of one way streets. Still, it made her mad as hell that she had to get another attorney to deal with his stupid will changes. He should just leave it the hell alone.

"I'll get another attorney," she said sourly. "Jax didn't think she was very good."

"Did you get all the paperwork filled out for your marriage?" her father asked before spearing a piece of rare roast beef with his fork.

"Finally. I had to do it over three times. The prison marriage coordinator or whatever the bitch is called was so picky. It's going to take a couple of weeks to get all the approvals."

"You sure you want to marry Jax?"

"Yes. I love him," Ava said. She heard her words and they didn't sound even remotely believable.

"Good," her father said. "Glad to hear that. I really like that young man."

Ava almost choked on her asparagus. It was the last thing she expected her father to say.

"I'm glad you approve," she said trying to sound like she meant it.

"He's a very nice young man. A big improvement over your usual bland, boring and useless types. He's got some character and some strength to him."

Her father just wasn't woke. He didn't understand that the qualities he admired in Jax were part of Toxic Masculinity and it wasn't a good thing.

Ava thought about trying to wake up her father to the modern way of thinking, but he was just too old and set in his ways. He would never be able to understand that those bland, boring and useless types of guys that she liked were the epitome of the modern male.

"So glad you like him," Ava said. Her face felt numb with a combination of shock and disappointment. Her father _liked_ him. What the hell was wrong with him? He should have hated Jax and offered her the trust fund.

Oh, son of a bitch, she thought. She might have to actually go through with this joke of a wedding. How could he want her to get married without a proper wedding gown, flowers or a reception? She could only have one guest. Why didn't he stop her from marrying a convict?

"Are you going to be at the wedding?" she asked.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," her father said.

That was just great, Ava thought. He wanted to see her on the worst day of her life marrying a convict. Great parenting, daddy dearest. What a great job as a father forcing his daughter to marry a criminal! How could he not see that this was all messed up? How could he not want more for her? Maybe he hated her and he was going to get some sick twisted joy watching her marry an inmate.

She couldn't do much about her situation because she was going to be living with him during her marriage. He was going to watch her like a hawk to make sure she didn't go out clubbing when she was supposed to be a good little wife to her inmate husband.

For a few minutes as she finished her dinner, she thought about changing her plan. Getting into college would be really tricky even with her father's influence. Once she got in, she would have to study and write papers. She didn't want to do that. She knew everything that she needed to know. Stuffing her brain temporarily with a bunch of knowledge so she could vomit it out on a test really wasn't going to help her or the world. She also didn't have any job skills.

She was back to where she'd started. Marrying a convict was the lesser of all the evils. It was the only way to stay in her father's will.

She considered dragging her feet over finding another attorney, but there wasn't any point. The attorney she saw in San Francisco was much better than Ellie Lowen. He suggested the same suggestion Jax had that her father guarantee her some money in a trust if she fulfilled the terms of his will. Her father readily agreed to that change as well as some minor changes that didn't change his will much.

Her attorney also was going to take over the prenup—that's what he was calling the agreement with Jax to marry her. She'd never thought of it that way, but it was a prenuptial agreement. He left the agreement that Ellie had drawn up almost completely intact. He would need to be added to Jax's list of visitors to get the agreement signed before they got married.

Ava had one last hope that she would be spared having to marry a convict. Her father was meeting with Jax a few days before the wedding. She prayed that her father would finally see the light and realize he couldn't let his little princess marry a criminal.

How could her father not find it humiliating that his daughter was marrying a man in prison? She was plenty embarrassed by it. She hadn't told any of her fake friends that she was getting married. There was no wedding announcement or engagement pictures.

Once she'd served her three years in matrimonial hell, she'd divorce Jax and get her life back. Her father had agreed to set aside in a trust thirty million dollars that would go to her on his death if she fulfilled the terms of his will. She expected to inherit the bulk of his estate, but this trust would protect her in case he got mad at her and tried to cut her out of his will after she fulfilled the terms of his will. She wouldn't get her hands on his money right away, but at least she had a fixed goal to work towards.

Thirty million dollars for three years of her life. It seemed like a fair trade. It wasn't as though Jax was going to get out of prison in the next three years.


	15. Chapter 15 There's Always a Catch

6

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 15 There's Always a Catch**

"

Jax was surprised that TB wanted to see him again. He was supposed to marry Ava on Saturday. Could be TB was having second thoughts about letting his little girl marry a convict? This could be the worst case for Jax. If TB didn't want Ava to marry him, he could kiss his future father-in-law's help to get out of prison good-bye.

As soon as Jax was unchained, TB reached out to shake Jax's hand. Since TB was an attorney, once again they were meeting privately in a small room. It wasn't the same small room, but it had the same type of small table and chairs.

"Good to see you again," TB said cordially. "I come bearing good news."

Jax hadn't realized he was holding his breath until that moment.

"I can always use good news."

"Can't we all?" TB said with a grin. "I also owe you a small apology. When you said your attorney was incompetent, I dismissed it as what clients always say when their attorneys lose cases. Turns out you weren't just right, you were _really_ right."

"What does that mean? Can I get the verdict tossed for that?"

"Do you know how much you or your MC spent on your defense?"

"She was given $100,000 in total. She didn't tell me until it was time to present the defense that she hadn't been able to afford to hire an investigator to look into the ATF agents. I kept asking and she kept blowing me off. I didn't have the time or the opportunity to get more money to her."

TB made notes on a yellow legal pad in front of him with his cheap grocery store pen. He saw no point in carrying a Mont Blanc pen though he could easily have afforded brief cases full. He didn't believe in paying more for a fancy brand name especially when his supermarket pens worked perfectly. It was something he'd tried to explain to his label crazy daughter.

"Kevin the attorney who did the preliminary review on your case said that at the most your defense should have cost was $50,000."

"Son of a bitch," Jax said slapping his hand down on the table. He stood up shaking his head and kicking the wall. "I fucking knew something was wrong."

"How do you feel about making your attorney pay? I don't mean just financially. I'm thinking she gets disbarred and goes to jail for awhile. She committed fraud and that's just the beginning."

"Hell yes! I want to make her pay. How long before you can get my verdict set aside?"

"Even with my connections it will take several months. Kevin believes your attorney deliberately lost your case. There was the beginnings of a defense and then it just stopped. She made no effort to look into the ATF agents at all. Can you think of any reason why she would have lost your case so you would end up here?"

"No," Jax said. He would give that some thought later. For now, he was focused on information that would get him out of prison.

"We can get all that later. For not, it's clear that she was both incompetent and corrupt. The bar association will take a very dim view of an attorney deliberately losing a case."

Jax returned to his chair. The nightmare might finally be over. Just a few months and he could really be out! He loved the irony that if Lowen hadn't brought Ava with him, he might be locked up for the full twenty.

"When I get you out, you can't do anything to Lowen. We'll get her legally and screw up her life legally."

"OK. You have my word. I won't physically hurt her. I do intend to share my thoughts with her."

"Only reasonable for you to do that," TB said with a smile. "When the time comes, I will send someone to go with you. You can't trust her not to lie or try to set you up for something."

"That's a good point. I'll do it your way."

"Your attorney wasn't the only one who screwed you over. The prosecution had exculpatory evidence in his files that your attorney never got."

"What does that mean? The prosecution knew I was innocent and prosecuted me anyway?"

TB rubbed his chin as he thought that over.

"In a summarized version, that's basically it. Kevin believes that they figured you were guilty of all kinds of stuff and this was their opportunity to put you in prison for something. It didn't matter whether or not you were guilty of committing this particular crime."

"What exculpatory evidence was there?"

TB grinned. "This is really good. There's a video of you getting into the car. It's clear you weren't carrying any kind of automatic weapon. There wasn't anywhere for you to have concealed it. We'll get the video authenticated and enhanced. That also goes to the ATF's claim about the gun. It looks like there was a conspiracy between the prosecution and the ATF. This stuff happens. It's just usually not this obvious.

"We'll still go into the ATF stuff. What I want to do is hit the media with all this stuff and really stir the public up so either we get a quick hearing that sets aside the verdict or we put some pressure on the governor and get you a pardon. We can still fight the conviction, get it overturned and go after those responsible. I'm looking at how to get you out quickly. I figure the first priority is to get you out as soon as possible."

"This could really happen."

"No," TB said. "This is going to happen. There is no doubt. It's a matter of how quick."

"What do I need to do?"

"Here's a list of attorneys you need to add to your visitor's list. Next week, after you've married Ava, Kevin who has already been approved as a visitor, will come by with papers designating a fleet of new attorneys to handle the appeal and deal with the other legal issues Kevin's turned up. There will also be paperwork to terminate Ellie Lowen's services as your attorney. Just a simple straightforward form letter. We don't want her to know that we're going to destroy her until all of our prongs of attack are ready and then we'll unload on her, the DA and the ATF all at once."

Jax was still having trouble believing this was all really going to happen and soon. Basic rule in life—if something seems too good to be true—it's usually a scam.

"When I get you out, I want something in return," TB said. He slipped his legal pad back into his briefcase. "It's a big ask."

This was something that Jax understood. People only did things for you because they wanted something in return. Now, TB's passion for helping him made complete sense.

"What is it?"

"Ava is a spoiled brat, but a lot of that is my fault. I gave her to nannies to raise. I haven't paid much attention to her and if I don't do something about her now, she's going to be just another spoiled rich brat who only thinks of herself. She's too old for me to fix. That's where you come in."

"What do you expect?"

"When you get out, I expect you to be a good husband to her. Don't hit her or cheat on her. Stay married to her for at least three years."

"That's it?"

"It won't be easy. I'm doing this without any written legal document. If you give me your word, that you will stay married to Ava for at least three years and you won't hit or cheat on her, I will spend whatever it takes to get you out of prison."

Jax took this as more confirmation that TB knew that Ava was marrying him to get around the terms of his will and not only was he OK with it, he wanted to help her succeed. Now, that was an interesting father/daughter dynamic.

"You have my word I'll stay married to her for at least three years and I won't hit her or cheat on her in exchange for your legal help getting me out of here."

"And we're going to keep this a secret from Ava until we know when you're getting out."

"Agreed. I can hardly wait to see the joy on her face."

"See you Saturday at the wedding. I got special permission for an extra guest. I thought you would want your mother there."

"Thanks a lot," Jax said exchanging another hearty handshake with Ava's father.

The Jax Teller Finishing School for Spoiled Rich Girls was going to be in session soon. Jax had no doubt of that.

_**Next Chapter: Wedding of Woe (with a bride pic for the story) **_


	16. Chapter 16 Wedding Woes

8

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 16 Wedding Woes**

"

Ava had long ago quit believing in marriage. It was a few years after she'd discovered Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny didn't exist. Still, she did have occasional fantasies about a beautiful, romantic proposal and a giant over the top wedding.

In all of her wedding fantasies, her husband died tragically of a previously undiagnosed medical condition leaving her a bride and a widow on the same day. The drama and not having to go through the boredom and hell of marriage was what appealed to her. She didn't have anything against her make believe groom. She just didn't want to be married. She just wanted to wear the dress and have a great reception with lots of amazing food.

The British Royal family appealed to her princess fantasies. Princess Diana's dress had been a disaster. How was it that no one thought about the dress wrinkling? It was wedding dress designer malpractice. The creators of the dress should have known better. Her veil and the Spencer family tiara were breathtaking though. When the light hit the diamonds in her tiara, they sparkled almost like magic. Who knew that beautiful young bride would grow up into an independent woman who would stand up to her husband and the British Royal family?

When Catherine Middleton married Prince Willian, she looked flawless. Ava knew exactly what the dress would look like—it would have long sleeves and look a lot like Grace Kelly's only a little more modern. It was timeless and elegant.

The nicest thing Ava could say about Meghan Markle's dress was that it looked comfortable. It wouldn't have been so bad if it had been fitted to the waist and then flared out. Instead, it was a caftan with a boatneck. If the dress had been brown with a white rope belt, it could have passed for a monk's costume.

She imagined that she would wear a beautiful, custom designed wedding dress that would be the most beautiful wedding gown in history. Her reality fell far short of her dreams.

Her father could have at least given her money for a wedding gown. He told her that her allowance could easily stretch to buy something to wear on her wedding day noting that prison ceremonies didn't require wedding dresses.

It wasn't a real wedding anyway, Ava thought trying to console herself. She didn't have anyone to go dress shopping with her. She knew if she'd called her group of friends in Los Angeles, they would to with her dress shopping and tell her the dresses that looked the worst on her looked the best. They were that kind of friends. She'd long ago learned not to listen to them during shopping trips.

Her friends would gossip and make her feel even worse about marrying a convict. She didn't need anyone making her feel worse. She didn't think she could feel any worse. She knew that they might find out about her marriage, but they wouldn't find out from her.

If anyone who knew her found out she'd married an inmate, she was going to pretend she was wildly infatuated with him. When they divorced in three years, she'd tearfully confess that he'd played her with his convict skills.

Finally, she ordered some white dresses on the internet. There wasn't anywhere to dress shop in Charming and she didn't care much about the dress anyway. There was not going to be a fairytale wedding. No sparkling diamond tiara. There wouldn't even be a veil or hat.

She finally decided on a simple short sleeved white tea length fit and flare dress with a large ruffle around the bottom. She had added a black belt with a sparkly rhinestone slide that would add some style to her simple dress. She was going to wear her favorite comfortable black ballet flats to give her wedding outfit a little edge.

Ava didn't believe in wearing high heels. She believed them to be a form of toxic masculinity used to control women much like foot binding did back whenever they did it. The fashion industry encouraged women to torture their feet. It was looks over comfort. How many of the men who design high heels that torture feet wear them? That would be none. They hate women and take the hate out in footwear. It's just another way that society hurts women. Men sure as hell wouldn't wear shoes that painful. While high heels did make legs look longer and more slender, that was again encouraging women to value looks over comfort.

When Ava looked out the window on her wedding day, the weather accurately reflected her feelings on this big day in her life. The day was gray, overcast and raining.

Her father had allowed her to get a hair and make-up artist to make her look good on her wedding day. The hair stylist just dried her hair and then flat ironed it until it was a shiny wall of brownish-red hair. The make-up artist just did a simple black mascara and eyeliner look with a deep almost burgundy red lipstick. She fastened the diamond earrings her father had given her as a wedding present in her ears. The earrings looked good against her dark hair.

Sparing no expense, her father had even rented a limo to take them to the prison for the ceremony. Gemma was going with them, so he'd wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for everyone. She was surprised her father even wanted to come to her wedding. When she was little and she'd found her mother dead with a needle stuck in her arm, he'd sent his assistant. Now when she needed him the least, he was willing to give her some of his precious time.

Her father was waiting for her at the bottom of the staircase immaculately dressed in a dark charcoal suit with a burgundy tie.

"You look beautiful Ava," her father said. "Just enough of a bride."

"Thank you," she said politely.

"No flowers?"

"They don't allow them in prison," she said.

"Let's go. We have to pick Gemma up."

Ava quietly followed her father. She had no idea why he'd gotten the prison to allow him to bring Jax's mother to the wedding. Most of the time only one guest was allowed. She would have preferred that no one come to her wedding. The fewer that saw her at the lowest moment of her life, the easier it would be to forget it had ever happened.

Gemma had on her best black spandex pants and a gray, blue and black paisley printed top. She had gotten her hair recently striped with blonde making her hair look a little like the fur of an exotic zoo animal.

"Don't you look nice," Gemma said brightly to Ava.

Ava wasn't fooled by Gemma's tone of voice. She could hear the undercurrent of venom in it. Ava ignored Gemma and put on her dark sunglasses.

Now, she regretted not eating breakfast. Her stomach was rumbling unhappily. If she'd eaten, she might throw up and she had two great targets to aim at in her father and Gemma.

"Wedding feast is on me," Gemma said with a laugh. "I've got a ton of crisp singles for the vending machines."

"That's very considerate of you, Gemma," her father said without a trace of irony in his voice.

All Ava could think about was how there would be no elegant reception with six or seven courses of the most expensive best tasting food ever served at a wedding. They would be eating vending machine food. She doubted that any of it would even be organic.

"I'm going to meditate," Ava said. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Each mile brought her closer to marriage and the closer she got, the more it looked like she was going to have to go through with it.

To her shock and complete horror, her father and Gemma were getting flirty on the car ride to prison. Ava wondered what the hell was wrong with her father.

This could be good news. He might have early onset dementia and she could go to court and get his new will set aside based on his lacking the mental capacity to make the will changes. She'd listened to him drone on enough about his legal cases that she'd picked up a few things.

Ava went through the security procedures quickly. She'd been through them enough that it was automatic. Once they were through security, they were escorted to the prison's chapel. Guests were seated on one side. The women getting married sat on the other side. The grooms hadn't been brought in yet.

It was just one more horror. She thought she and Jax would be the only ones getting married. There were three other brides. Finally, the grooms were brought into the chapel. Perhaps because this was a special day, the men were unshackled before entering the chapel.

"You came," Jax said grinning and feigning surprise. "You look beautiful Ava."

"Thanks. Wouldn't they at least let you wear something different on your wedding day?"

"I got clean orange clothes for the ceremony. That's about as good as it gets in here."

They sat down together. Ava's nausea at the idea of marriage had only increased. The other women getting married hadn't made much effort with their appearance. Two had on jeans with T-shirts and the other had on white pants and a pink flowered top. She couldn't even take any pleasure in the fact that she was the chicest bride in the chapel.

"The guard told me if I slip him a few bills, he'll make sure we get five minutes alone in the bathroom," Jax whispered into Ava's ear.

His breath was hot on her neck causing her body to experience unwanted tingles. It was just a normal reaction to his toxic masculinity.

"And why would I want five minutes alone with you?"

"So we could consummate our marriage."

Jax was doing that hot breath on her neck thing again and it was really stirring up unpleasantly warm sensations in her.

"Never going to happen," Ava said.

"Uh-huh," Jax said grinning. He had a feeling if she knew he was going to be getting out of prison in a few months, she wouldn't go through with the wedding. Wait until he was out and she discovered that he expected her to be a real wife to him in every sense of the word. There were going to be some good times ahead.

"Just give yourself a hand and pretend it's me," Ava whispered in his ear. "That's as close to having sex with me as you're going to get."

"And how are you going to spend our wedding night?"

"With a new sex toy and a fresh package of batteries."

"The first thing I'm going to do when I get out is toss out all your sex toys. You won't need them with me."

Ava laughed.

"Keep dreaming."

A ceremony had just finished and the man bent his now wife over in a big, wet messy kiss with lots of tongue.

"Disgusting," Ava said watching this tacky display.

A guard broke up the kiss before it could get anymore out of control. Some of the audience booed.

"The guy was just excited about being married. He wanted to show his love."

"I swear to God if you try to shove your tongue in my mouth, _I will bite you,_" Ava said whispering fiercely in Jax's ear.

"Come on," Jax said with a wide grin. "We're next."

Ava barely listened to the minister's words. What she didn't hear, she wouldn't remember. There was nothing she ever wanted to remember about getting married. The only good thing about her marriage was Jax being locked up in prison.

When the minister said the part that if anyone knew why this man and woman shouldn't be joined in holy matrimony let him speak now or forever hold his piece, Ava made eye contact with her father. He didn't say anything. She couldn't believe it. He was actually going to let her marry a convict. She'd been clinging to a tiny hope that he'd stop her wedding.

The next thing she knew, the minister pronounced them husband and wife. Second only to finding her mother dead with a needle stuck in her arm, this was the worst day of her life.

"

_**Random musings of a troubled mind: If Gemma finds out about Clay and Ellie Lowen, could she hook up with Ava's father? How would Ava feel about that if it happened?**_


	17. Chapter 17 Wedded Bliss

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 17 Wedded Bliss **

"

Jax showed remarkable restraint by not shoving his tongue down Ava's throat because he had a feeling she hadn't been joking when she told him she would bite him. He had given her a neat respectful no tongues kiss. It was his way of getting the marriage off to a good start and he was still hoping he could persuade her to join him in the bathroom for a quickie.

He did surprise her when Gemma handed him the wedding rings. Ava hadn't expected them to exchange rings. Jax told Gemma what he wanted the wedding bands to look like and Gemma found the exact rings. They were matching platinum bands with a beaded border around the top and bottom. Ava kept looking at the ring on her finger, but he couldn't tell what she was feeling.

He'd never given much thought to getting married because he'd never been in love and that was just fine with him. He had definitely thought about being a father which was why he never trusted girls who claimed they were using birth control. He always used a condom to stay fatherhood and disease free.

They were standing away from the guests and grooms having a few quiet words after being joined in matrimony.

"I know this isn't the sort of wedding any sane girl dreams about, but you better suck it up and make it look good for your father. It wouldn't be good if he thought you just married me because I'm in prison."

"I never wanted to get married. It's not personal," Ava said with a sigh. "Marriage is stupid and archaic."

"It also promotes and encourages toxic masculinity," Jax said with mock seriousness.

"Now you're starting to understand," Ava said earnestly.

The brides, grooms and guests were escorted to a room with tables, chairs and a wall of vending machines. This room was used by visitors and the ones they had come to see, but most preferred sitting outside which was why the room only had a single couple in it.

They selected a table off to the side for a little privacy.

"You two just have a few moments together while TB and I put together a wedding feast," Gemma said brightly.

Ava again thought she was going to throw up. She looked down at her ring. As long as she had this on, she would never be able to forget she was married as much as she might try.

"You like your ring?" Jax asked.

"I wasn't expecting a ring. It never even occurred to me."

"Do you like the ring?" Jax asked again.

"I do," Ava admitted reluctantly. "I like white metals better than gold colored ones. I look better in them."

For whatever reason, Jax was making an effort to make this day not be completely horrible for her. He did seem to care that she liked the ring.

"That was exactly my thought."

"You're making fun of me," Ava said suspiciously.

"I am," Jax said with a grin. "Don't look so sad. You've just married the man of your dreams. Cheer up. Marriage isn't forever. It always ends in either death or divorce."

"Marriage always ends," Ava said thoughtfully. "That does cheer me up."

"Why don't we get to know each other better in the bathroom?" Jax suggested. "We don't have to have sex." He flashed her one of his most charming smiles.

"Hell no!" Ava shuddered at the thought. "Did you really think you had a chance in holy hell of that working?"

"Not really," Jax confessed rubbing his beard thoughtfully. "I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. Can't blame me for wanting to get with my hot as hell wife."

"Flattery isn't going to work either," Ava said tartly.

Gemma and TB returned with the wedding feast. Gemma had gotten every type of soft drink from the vending machines Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Orange Fanta and Barq's Root Beer. TB's arms were full of chips, crackers, trail mix and pretzels.

"We should toast," Gemma said. She passed out the different soft drinks a Coke for Jax, Dr. Pepper for Ava, Sprite for TB and root beer for her.

"To a long and happy marriage," TB said.

They all clinked cans and drank.

"I thought we'd eat this now and then do desserts after. They have those little Hostess cupcakes we can use as a wedding cake," Gemma said still ruthlessly cheerful.

"Cheer up, Ava," her father chided her. "You married the love of your life."

Jax smiled at Ava and patted her hand.

"It still feels like a dream that this wonderful angel would actually marry me," Jax said.

Ava stretched her lips into a smile. This was a fucking nightmare. She didn't know what the hell was wrong with her father, Gemma and Jax. They were acting like this was the greatest thing ever. Maybe they were all on drugs. She wished they had shared them with her. A little LSD or some magic mushrooms might have made this nightmare wedding tolerable.

"I know this isn't the kind of wedding you dreamed of," TB said to Ava, "but when Jax gets out of prison you can have the wedding of your dreams including a honeymoon."

"I can hardly wait," Ava said trying to sound enthusiastic.

"As long as you bring love to a wedding, that's all you really need," Gemma said.

Ava wished Gemma would choke to death on her fake sweet words. Before she could give Gemma anymore thought, there was a fight at one of the tables.

The groom had shoved a Twinkie into his bride's face. She threw a punch at him striking him in the nose. The inmate groom counterpunched connecting with her jaw. The guest took a swing at the groom missing completely. The guards broke up the fight and took the prisoner away.

"Can't have a prison wedding without a fight," Jax said.

Ava just wanted the nightmare to end. It felt like time had stopped and the visit would never end.

Gemma got chocolate Hostess cupcakes and arranged them in tiers like a wedding cake. Jax and Ava fed each other a bite of cupcake without any cake smashing issues.

After they finished the cupcakes, Gemma and TB left Jax and Ava alone so the happy bride and groom could have a few moments alone.

"I hate being married," Ava said sullenly.

Jax laughed. If she hated being married now, wait until he got out of prison. There were going to be some good times ahead—maybe not so much for Ava.


	18. Chapter 18 Shiv Him for Me

2

**Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 18 Shiv Him for Me **

"

Ellie Lowen had a new plan. It wouldn't get her out of trouble with the California Bar Association, but it would fix her problem with her legal representation of Jax Teller. He needed to die. There wasn't any reason that he should stay alive. She wasn't going to get anymore money out of him or that bitch he was either going to marry or had already married. She was out of the information loop on that.

Jax had officially fired her as his attorney. The form letter informing her of that wasn't from him. That made it worse. It meant someone else was steering all his legal efforts now. It wouldn't be long before some semi-bright legal mind figured out what she had done. There was one way to stop them prying into Jax's legal case—kill him. No reason to look into his case if he's dead. And the sooner the better.

Everyone knows that prisons are dangerous places. People were always getting killed in them. She could get someone killed in a state prison. She had plenty of contacts, but the federal prison system was a problem. She didn't have any access there.

There was nothing to do but to talk to the outlaw and see if Clay could get someone to shiv Jax for her.

She smiled as she called Clay's special burner phone and arranged to talk to the outlaw. She knew that he would expect sex when he came by. He always did. It made her wonder about his sex life with Gemma. Those MC guys were probably all over sexed. That was part of their appeal.

Sex with Clay would be degrading. She shut her eyes and wondered why she needed sex to be humiliating to feel good.


	19. Chapter 19 My Husband's Been What

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 19 My Husband's Been What? **

"

Ava was pleased to discover that after more than two weeks of marriage her life wasn't much different from when she was single. That was the advantage to having an inmate for a husband.

She did visit Jax, talk to him on the phone once a week and write to him weekly as well, so it would look like she was a good dutiful wife—something she would never be if he weren't in prison. Of course, she had given up dating and partying. Moving to Charming had resulted in her giving up shopping since there wasn't much available and it was a drive to go anywhere with decent shopping. She had actually been forced into internet shopping, but it just wasn't the same.

Today Jax was supposed to call her. The time varied based on when he got in line for the phone and how many guys were ahead of him. He had never been this late before. Maybe he wasn't going to call. That was fine with her, but she was annoyed that he didn't let her know that he wasn't going to call so she didn't have to wait around. She could have gotten her nails done.

She was in the middle of watching a Hallmark movie when her phone rang. Jax was more than three hours late.

"Is this Mrs. Jax Teller?" a woman's voice asked.

Ava hadn't changed her name and had no plans to do so. Too much paperwork and then there would be more work to change it back. Besides, she had a better place in the alphabet and it was feeding into the toxic masculinity climate for a woman to change her last name to a man's. Women's last names mattered.

"Who wants to know?" Ava demanded.

"This is Dolores Jones at Kensington Federal Prison."

"I'm married to Jax Teller, but my name is Ava Becker. I don't believe in all that name changing patriarchal crap."

"Ms. Becker, I regret to inform you that your husband has been injured in a fight."

"Did he get hurt?"

"He was shivved several times."

"He was what?"

"He was attacked with a prison knife."

"What the hell is wrong with you people letting prisoners have knives? He is going to be OK?"

Ava was worried. If something happened to Jax, she didn't have the money to hire another husband.

"The wounds are deep and near the heart. He has been transported to San Francisco General Hospital's prison ward. He should be out of surgery soon and you can visit him."

Ava hung the phone up feeling stunned. She wasn't sure what to do. She decided to talk to her father. Since moving to Charming, he'd been spending a lot of time at home working out of his office.

Ava walked over to his office and tapped at the door frame. She'd started to do that as a small child and had continued.

"Come in Ava. You really don't have to do that knocking thing."

"Old habits. I just got a really disturbing phone call from the prison. Jax got stabbed with a prison knife and he's having surgery."

"Where did he get stabbed?" her father asked looking up from his laptop screen. He didn't read actual papers much anymore. Everything was on his computer.

"Near the heart. He's having surgery and is in . . ." Ava paused trying to remember, "San Francisco General Hospital."

TB looked at his daughter and realized that she had no clue what she needed to do. She had a lot of growing up to do and he needed to pitch in and help her figure this out.

"Go pack a bag in case we need to stay a few days depending on his condition. I'll call Elliot to have the car brought around."

"We? Are you coming with me?" Ava looked at her father uncertainly.

"Of course," he said. "Your husband is having emergency surgery."

"He was stabbed with a prison knife. Why do they let them have knives in prison?"

TB looked at his daughter and wondered how she could be so naïve and out of touch with the real world.

"To cut their steaks with," he said. He couldn't resist.

"I guess that makes sense."

"Ava, they do not let prisoners have knives," her father said with a sad shake of his head. "They make them out of whatever they can find."

"Jax fights a lot in prison," Ava said with a sigh.

"Do you know why?"

"Toxic masculinity," Ava said promptly.

"He fights to stay alive," her father said sharply. "It's a fucking prison not a nightclub. Go pack and hurry."

He couldn't rely on Jax to completely finish raising Ava. He needed to step in. He should have done it when she was growing up, but he'd never been comfortable around children or teens.

A half hour later with bags for each of them packed, Elliot was driving them to San Francisco General Hospital.

TB continued to work on his laptop.

"What did Gemma say?" TB asked about an hour into their drive finally looking up from his laptop.

Ava looked up from her phone where she was reading magazines.

"Gemma? I don't know. I haven't talked to her since the wedding."

"You didn't call to tell her about Jax?"

Ava thought about that for a moment frowning.

"No. I'm sure the prison called."

"Ava," her father said trying hard to hold on to his patience. "the prison called you because as Jax's wife you are his next of kin. You should have contacted Gemma. Call her now and tell her what's happened. If she needs a ride, I can have Elliot drop us off and then return to Charming for her."

"I don't have her phone number."

"Ask your phone for her number and call her right now."

Ava rolled her eyes and scowled at her father. For a moment she was back to her teenage years. She hated to be told what to do, but she should make sure that Gemma knew about Jax. She deserved that much since she was his mother.

She called Gemma at TM. The prison hadn't called her just as her father suspected. She told Gemma about Jax's medical condition and that she and her father were on their way to the hospital. Gemma told her that she would see them at the hospital.

"Let me talk to Gemma," TB said.

Ava handed her cell phone to her father.

He told her that he'd gotten two hotel suites at a nearby hotel and invited her and any of her family members to stay in one of them as his guest.

Ava stared at her father and wondered what the hell was going on between Gemma and her father.


	20. Chapter 20 Freaking Out Ava

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 20 Freaking Out Ava **

"

TB had his laptop in its bag slung over his shoulder as he led Ava into the hospital and to the prison ward. They walked up to a counter with a man in turquoise scrubs sitting behind it.

"My daughter is married to Jax Teller," TB explained to the nurse. "We want to know his medical condition."

The nurse consulted a list of names.

"He's wake now, but very tired. You can see him for a few minutes, but that's all. He needs his rest. Tomorrow, he'll be more alert."

"How did the surgery go?" TB asked.

"It went well. As long as there's no infection, he should be released to the prison infirmary in a day or two," the nurse replied.

Ava had never had to deal with anyone in the hospital before so she was glad that her father was helping her through it. She was still a little shocked that he'd actually gone with her. It could be that he didn't have anyone to send with her.

She didn't even know the questions to ask the nurse. She vowed to pay more attention the next time she saw this stuff on TV maybe take notes or something.

The nurse released the door so they could enter the prison ward. There was a guard sitting outside Jax's door. He searched TB and looked at Ava but didn't touch her.

"You have less than twenty minutes before they bring around the night meds and then the lights are turned out. You can come back tomorrow anytime after 8. Three visitors at once max as long as you're quiet."

"Thank you," Ava said politely.

The first thing Ava saw when she walked into Jax's hospital room was the handcuff that bound him to the bed. It just really hit her that he couldn't even be in a hospital like a normal person. He was still in prison in the hospital. She actually felt bad for him.

Jax was asleep and Ava thought he looked a little like a warrior angel. His pale thick blonde eyelashes rested against his cheeks, the curve of his lips looked a little like a cherub's—they were usually twisted in a smirk or in annoyance at something she'd said and his normally tanned face that was brimming with health and toxic masculinity was almost as white as the pillowcase his head was resting on. There was a bandage covering a cut over his eye, there was some bruising and swelling to his face and his hands were bruised and bandaged.

He woke with a start clearly surprised by his visitors.

"How are you feeling?" Ava asked softly. She went to the head of the bed and lightly rested her hand against his shoulder.

His hospital gown was loosened to allow room for the bandages on his chest. His finger was hooked to a pulse/oxy meter, there was an automatic blood pressure cuff on his arm and an IV was inserted into the hollow of his elbow. Machines provided constant monitoring of his vital signs.

"I'm not going to lie. I've been better," Jax said. Even his voice sounded weak to Ava's ears.

"We can't stay long, but we'll be back tomorrow. Is there anything we can get you?" TB asked.

"Some really good chocolate chip cookies," Jax said. "We don't get those in prison. I'm not going to be here long. Did someone call Gemma?"

"I called her. She's on her way, but I don't think she will get here before they quit allowing visitors," Ava said.

"I've got hotel rooms for all of us including your family so we can all be near you while you're in this hospital," TB said. "I have my car and driver with me and we can give your mother or your family help with transportation if they need it."

"Thanks TB. Thanks for calling Gemma, Ava."

"I'll give you a few minutes alone with Ava. I'll call your mother, give her an update on your condition and let her know she won't be able to see you tonight."

"Thanks."

"We'll talk tomorrow about the legal action we need to launch against that fucking prison over this."

Jax chuckled softly at TB's word choice. "Looking forward to it."

Ava saw the tough side to her father whenever he talked legal action. She wouldn't want to face him in court. That was an opinion shared by every person who had ever faced him in court. He was tough, smart and ruthless.

"Could you pour me some water?" Jax asked. "Surprised to see you here."

Ava poured him a glass of water from the plastic mauve pitcher. She unwrapped the straw and put it in the water for him.

"I didn't know what to do when the prison called. My dad helped me figure things out."

"I like your father."

"What happened?" Ava asked when her father left them alone.

"Three guys came up to me. Two guys grabbed me and one guy stuck me."

"Were they trying to kill you or just hurt you?"

"Kill."

"Jax, you can't let them kill you," Ava said seriously.

"I knew you were falling for me."

"You really do think a lot of yourself," she said coolly.

"You need me alive because you can't afford to rent another husband," he said, his blue eyes narrowing as he looked at his wife.

"Well there is some truth to that, but I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"Your devotion is heart warming," he said sarcastically. "Your father's watching. Quick give me a kiss. No, don't turn your head and look. That's a dead giveaway."

If Ava had turned her head, she would not have seen her father looking at them from the small window in the hospital room's door. Jax was playing her.

She leaned over and Jax kissed her, slipping her a little tongue to show her who was boss and piss her off at the same time.

"

_**Author's Note: No one looks hotter than Jax with some batttle wounds.**_

_**"**_

_**I've started a short story about Jax getting quarantined with a romance writer. It's going to be fun and it will only cover the 14 days of the quarantine in the story, so it's not going to be a huge open ended story.**_

_**It's going to take a twist or two that hasn't been done in a fanfic or at least I don't think so.**_


	21. Chapter 21 It's All YOUR Fault

6

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 21 It's All Your Fault **

"

Gemma came by TB's hotel suite to thank him for the hotel suite. TB had the ability to be kind and considerate while never making the recipient feel degraded or indebted. They arranged to meet in the hotel lobby at 8:30 to go see Jax.

Ava and her father got room service and ate a late dinner in their large hotel suite. TB ate while he worked in the office that was part of the suite. Ava had gone to her bedroom and watched TV while she ate her club sandwich with French fries.

The next morning, Gemma, Clay, Tig and Opie were waiting in the lobby for TB and Ava. It was probably the first time the Hotel Platinum had bikers complete with cuts in their lobby. Hotel staff were keeping a wary eye on the men of SAMCRO almost as though they were afraid they might start stealing or fighting at any moment.

Gemma introduced the men to TB. His expression was exactly like he was meeting anyone else. No disgust, no fear and no surprise. He shook hands with the men. The men of SAMCRO were surprised by his reaction.

"I'm flying to LA in a couple of hours. I'll be back tonight in time to visit Jax this evening. My driver Elliot will be free to drive you if anyone needs transport."

"We'll handle our own transportation," Clay said self-importantly.

"Just so you'll have options Gemma," TB said. "We'll meet you over at the hospital's prison ward."

Ava followed her father out of the hotel into the waiting car.

"So that's the MC?" he asked as Elliot shut the car doors.

"There are more members. I haven't met them all."

"They weren't as fierce as I thought they would be."

"They're just blue collar guys," Ava said.

"When I go through the airports, there are always cookie places. I'll get Jax his chocolate chip cookies. You are going to need to learn to bake."

"You can't bring outside food into the prison."

"He's going to get out."

"Twenty years gives me plenty of time to learn."

TB smiled at his daughter and looked at his phone.

When they got to the hospital, they discovered that Jax's condition had deteriorated overnight. He had a high fever and had been transferred from the prison ward to intensive care.

"He'll be fine," TB reassured Ava. "They'll pump him full of antibiotics."

"I hope so," Ava said in a sad voice. She expected to find Jax sitting up in bed and back to normal. She was hoping they could get back to Charming in the next day or two. It didn't really matter. It wasn't like she had much to do.

Gemma and her entourage of bikers arrived and they walked from the prison ward to ICU. The volunteer told them only three visitors at a time were allowed to visit. They decided that Gemma, Ava and TB would be the first set of visitors. TB would be leaving soon and then Clay, Opie or Tig could take his place.

The nurse introduced himself as Trace. He explained Jax's fever and that he'd been sedated, but they were free to go into his room and sit at his bedside. He said sleep was the best thing for him now.

Gemma gasped when she saw her healthy vibrant son in a hospital bed looking pale and almost frail.

"Did he look this bad last night?"

"No," Ava said. "He looks a lot worse now. Last night, we spoke for a few minutes and it seemed like he was going to be OK."

Jax's bruises had filled in with more purple color while his face and hands were more swollen. There was a security officer sitting outside his door, but at least he wasn't cuffed to the bed. Maybe someone had realized he was too sick to escape.

TB stayed a few minutes working on his schedule for that afternoon quickly changing appointments so he could make his court appearance that afternoon and make it back to Ava and Jax that evening.

Back when Ava called him scared because she'd found her mother with a needle in her arm and she couldn't wake her, he'd called an ambulance and sent his assistant. He had no idea how to deal with his young daughter, so he'd delegated it. It's what he did in business all the time. He'd spent years regretting it. This was his way of making it up to her. It was also easier because she was adult and adult Ava rarely cried.

"I've got to go catch my plane. If my plans change, I'll call you. I don't anticipate a change. Elliot will be back at the hotel once he drops me off on standby for you until he needs to pick me up from the airport."

"We can always give her a ride back," Gemma said.

"Thanks Gemma," TB said.

"Remember the cookies," Ava reminded him again.

"It's already in my phone and scheduled as a reminder."

"Cookies?" Gemma asked as TB left the room.

"My father asked Jax if there was anything we could get for him and he asked for some good chocolate chip cookies."

Gemma had gone out and told the guys that Jax was asleep. They decided to hand out in the cafeteria while Gemma and Ava sat at his bedside.

The nurse came in and used one of those sort of gun devices that he aimed at Jax's forehead to take his temperature.

"His temperature isn't going down. I'm going to contact the doctor. He may want to add another antibiotic."

"This infection isn't going to hurt him that much is it?" Ava asked.

Gemma gave her a scornful look.

"Yes. This could be serious. Infections can kill."

The nurse left and returned a few minutes later with a bag of liquid.

"We're going to give him another antibiotic."

The silence between the two women was tense. Finally Gemma had enough.

"This is all your fault," Gemma hissed at Ava.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Ava said indignantly.

"If he hadn't been in line for the phone to talk to you, he wouldn't have gotten shivved."

Ava jumped to her feet. She didn't like Gemma, didn't have to be nice to her and she wasn't about to put up with her attitude. She was also in a bad mood.

"You want to talk about blame? You raised your son and fucked it up so much he joins a motorcycle club because he needs a family," Ava said hotly. "If you had been a better mother, he wouldn't be in prison."

Ava's superpower was knowing what to say to get under someone's skin and saying it.

"You little bitch," Gemma spat out the words. If Jax's hospital bed hadn't separated the two women, Gemma would have gone for Ava. Her cat fighting days were not that far behind her.

"Can't take the truth? What kind of mother encourages her son to join an outlaw MC? Were you too stupid to understand what the words outlaw meant? Most of the guys including your husband have been in prison. What kind of mother wants that kind of life for her son? You are a horror movie mother."

"Bitch," Gemma said. She wasn't used to anyone standing up to her. She expected Ava to give her some measure of respect as Jax's mother and wife of the president of the MC. There was no respect in Ava.

"I don't mind being called a bitch. That's better than being a failure as a mother."

Gemma stormed out of the room. She'd had enough. No one had treated her like that. _She_ treated people like that.

Ava was glad that Gemma had left the room. It was nice to have all that tension in the room gone. It was creating bad karma for Jax.

She resumed her seat. She was a little shaken from her fight with Gemma, but she didn't regret what she'd said to her. Every word she said was true. She'd learned from Jax over the course of their phone conversations and visits that he had been expected to join the motorcycle club since birth. Gemma had practically condemned her son to prison as a result

After an hour or so, Jax began to stir. His eyes fluttered open.

"Ava," he whispered. Ava leaned closer to hear him. "You want to go into the bathroom?"

"

_**Author's Note: Ava's misbehavior reaches a whole new level.**_


	22. Chapter 22 Checking Gemma

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 22 Checking Gemma **

"

Gemma found the guys sitting at a table in the hospital cafeteria drinking coffee and eating donuts. Not much different from how they usually spent their mornings just a different location.

"You have news on Jax?" Opie asked.

"He has an infection. They gave him antibiotics. He wasn't getting better, so they gave him another."

"What got you so fired up?" Clay asked. Gemma's face was flushed and she looked angry. He'd seen that look often enough directed at him.

"That little bitch he married. I can't stand her. She told me that it was my fault—my fault—that he got shivved," Gemma said indignantly.

Clay looked at Gemma. He didn't completely buy her explanation.

"Out of the blue she just said that to you? What did you say to her?" Clay demanded.

Opie and Tig exchanged glances. Clay might love and worship Gemma, but that didn't mean that he didn't see her flaws.

"I told her Jax wouldn't have gotten shivved if he hadn't been in line for the phone so he could talk to her, so that makes it all her fault."

"Gemma, that was wrong," Clay said. Part of being a member of an outlaw MC was keeping your old lady in line. That was done by any means necessary including dispensing a vicious beat down if the behavior called for it. Gemma's behavior currently only called for scolding.

"She said I was a bad mother because I raised a criminal."

The men laughed. They didn't regard being called a criminal as an insult.

"It's not funny," Gemma said tartly. "I hate that little tramp."

None of the men thought Gemma would have a warm and loving relationship with her daughter in law. They figured any woman Jax married would be strong and outspoken. Jax wouldn't pick a doormat of a woman to marry. That meant that Gemma and Jax's old lady would clash probably all the time.

Jax never said anything to SAMCRO about his marriage to Ava beyond that he was getting married. He didn't tell them of the deal he'd made with her, but the guys knew that Ava came from money and they suspected his hasty marriage had something to do with fighting his weapons conviction.

They knew he'd been set up because they didn't sell the weapon the ATF claimed he'd sold them. They were trying everything they could think of to help him, but there wasn't much they could do.

The government was enormously powerful. It was going to be a long and expensive fight having someone with money and power behind his appeal could make all the difference. They would all marry a woman if she could help them appeal a conviction with a long prison sentence. A guy gets a longer sentence for a nonviolent crime like selling a gun than if he'd raped a woman or molested a kid. It just wasn't right.

Clay would love to see Jax's marriage go up in flames preferably today, but he knew Jax wasn't going to do anything to rock the boat with his new father in law who was bank rolling his appeal. He assumed that was what was happening because of the high caliber of Jax's new attorneys. The MC wasn't funding the appeal and Jax's new attorneys didn't work for free.

He knew about Jax firing Lowen through Lowen, but Jax hadn't said anything to anyone in the MC about it. He also hadn't said anything to Gemma or she would have said something to him about Jax getting rid of Lowen as his attorney. He wondered why Jax was being so secretive. Whatever Jax's reason, it couldn't be good for him.

"You need to take her under your wing and teach her how to be an MC old lady," Clay said. He was just fanning the flames of Gemma's anger for his own enjoyment.

"Like that's going to happen," Gemma said scornfully. "She's a little too fancy to be a biker's old lady."

"When she came to the clubhouse those couple of times, she was real nice," Tig said. "She let us drive her car.

"It's just going to take her a little time to get used to being married to a guy in an MC," Opie said.

"That marriage will never last," Gemma predicted optimistically.

"I'm going to make a couple of calls. Check on TM. Stay here and keep Gemma company," Clay said.

"You sure you don't want me to go with you?" Tig asked.

"I'll be OK."

Tig took his job as sergeant at arms seriously. Keeping Clay safe and the guys in line was his job. He didn't like Clay going anywhere alone when they were outside Charming. You never knew when an enemy was going to turn up.

Clay put in a quick call to TM to make sure the garage was running smoothly without them. Piney had everything in hand. It was a slow day. Clay updated him on Jax's medical condition before ending the call.

The next call he made on his burner phone wouldn't be as pleasant.


	23. Chapter 23 Payback

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 23 Payback **

"

Clay listened as the man on the other end of the call explained how Jax had avoided death when he'd gotten shivved yesterday. It was typical prison bullshit. Unfortunately for the three guys that failed to kill Jax, they were looking at attempted murder charges. They were caught on video and by the guards. It was a slam dunk case.

In addition to punishment within the prison consisting of solitary, a loss of privileges and transfers to a supermax prison, the failed assassins would be tried in court on attempted murder charges and, even with Jax doing the prison thing and refusing to testify, the three men were looking at significant time. They were perfect picks for assassins. They had no family and no one to fill their commissary accounts. For a couple of years worth of commissary money, they were willing to trade years of their lives or they were idiots who thought they would get away with it and get years of commissary.

Next Clay called Ellie Lowen. She would be disappointed that she couldn't talk to the outlaw and have some degrading sex, but she'd be more devastated when she learned the hit failed.

"What happened?" Ellie said.

"Jax's in the hospital in ICU. They did surgery and if they can kill his infection with antibiotics, he's going to live."

"Are you sure he'll live?"

"Unless we get lucky and he gets one of those hospital infections that kills, I think he'll make it."

"Son of a bitch," Lowen swore. "What the hell went wrong?"

"Jax was in line waiting to talk to his old lady when the three guys attacked him. Jax fought back, they finally got control of him and while they were shivving him, a guard noticed called for back-up and intervened probably saving Jax's life."

"This is fucking bad," Ellie said. Lowen had pinned all her hopes on Jax's death. She'd paid for it and she damned well wanted Jax Teller dead and the sooner the better.

"No shit," Clay said. Typical attorney always stating the obvious as though they'd come up with some new and profound thought.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at San Francisco General hospital with Gemma, a couple of the guys and Jax's bride. Her father is gone. He'll be back tonight."

"Well, someone is going to have to try again."

"Fine. You arrange it this time."

"Like I have those kinds of connections," Lowen said sarcastically. "I don't suppose I'll get any of my money back."

"You supposed right," Clay said with heavier sarcasm.

"Can you find someone or could you do something at the hospital?"

"Like what?"

"Maybe you could smear feces—that means shit—in his IV line or something like that."

"You are an idiot—that means fucking crazy. Gemma said there's a guard outside his door. He's going to be hard to kill in the hospital and make it look like an accident. I'm sure as hell not going to take the risk. If I got caught it would fucking ruin my life."

"OK," Ellie said sighing heavily. "Is there any way we could pay someone to kill him in the hospital?"

"Did you miss the part when I told you there was a guard outside his door?"

"I heard you, but I watch all these TV shows where someone dresses up like a nurse and gives the patient a syringe full of poison and then just walks away."

"Genius plan," Clay said again using sarcasm. "Why don't you give it a try or hire someone? I don't want any part of it."

"OK fine. Can you have someone kill him in prison again?"

"The guys that tried this time won't be available. It's going to take some time to put it together and Jax is going to be protected. I'm sure his old lady's father will raise hell with the prison. It will be months before things relax enough for there to be a chance at killing him again."

"Fine," Ellie said curtly. "Find out when and how much. I'll pay more to make it happen sooner. I need him dead. I also want a discount for the screw up for this one."

"I'll put you in touch with the guy direct. You tell _him_ you want a discount. I don't want anymore to do with this."

"Do I have to remind you, that you _are_ involved in this?"

"You're the one whose ass is on the line," Clay said.

"And you're the one who paid me to throw the case," she said.

"Watch who you threaten. You've made a lot of enemies. One or more might come after you."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Take it anyway you want to," Clay said ending the call. He was so angry with that bitch Ellie Lowen that he had to fire up a cigarette and have a smoke to calm his nerves before returning inside.

"

"*******************************************

"

Jax watched as Ava's face flushed.

"Come into the bathroom with me. It could be my dying request."

"Let me think about that," she whispered softly. She poured a plastic cup full of water from the pitcher on his bedside tray table. "Don't need to think anymore about this. I never really had to think about it at all," she confessed with a smile.

She poured the mauve plastic cup full of water on Jax's crotch.

"Maybe that will cool you off," she whispered.

Jax gasped at the shock of the water hitting his body. He was thankful the water wasn't cold.

"I can't believe this," Ava said in a loud indignant voice. "You've peed the bed."

"Ava," Jax's voice was a low warning growl.

She gave him a big grin before marching out of his room and informing the nurse loud enough for Jax to hear it from his hospital bed that he'd pissed himself.

That would teach him to shove his tongue in her mouth and tell _her_ that her father was watching.

_**Author's Note: Check out my new story Quarantine & Love: Jax and the Romance Writer**_

_**Jax is quarantined with a romance writer who has a mysterious agenda with the lethally sexy VP of SAMCRO. This will be a short under 20 chapter story.**_


	24. Chapter 24 Misbehavior of Mrs Teller

6

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 24 The Misbehavior of Mrs. Teller—Ava Teller **

"

After loudly telling the nurse and anyone in the ICU nurses area that Jax had pissed himself, Ava took off. Jax could see her leave through the open door of his room. He was hoping she was going to come back. He had some things he wanted to say to her.

Jax had never crossed paths with a woman as feisty as Ava. She was definitely going to be a challenge. Normally he would be up for that challenge, but he'd nearly died, lost a lot of blood, had emergency surgery and was battling a potentially lethal infection, so he wasn't up to keeping his beautiful bride in line not at that moment anyway.

The nurse came into his room.

"I heard you had an accident," the nurse said in that calm slightly cheerful tone of voice nurses use.

"My bride has an unusual sense of humor. I knocked the glass of water off the table and got wet."

"I'll be right back and get you all fixed up."

It took awhile to get Jax all fixed up. His bedding needed changing and he needed a clean dry hospital gown. The nurse went ahead and changed the dressings on his wounds.

"That smell can't be good," Jax said when the nurse took his dressings off.

"It's the infection. This is good. I can take a culture and we can make sure we are giving you the right antibiotic."

Leave it to a nurse to put the best possible spin on an infected wound with a foul odor, Jax thought.

"How long will that take?"

"Just a couple of hours. Your fever is a little lower, but it isn't going down as rapidly as I'd like to see."

Jax nodded. His nurse seemed to know what he was doing. He'd have to wait to see how the day progressed. He took several swabs and put them in test tubes to send them to the hospital's lab.

"You mentioned bride. Are you recently married?"

"Yeah, less than two weeks," Jax said.

"I'm sure you would like some special alone time with your bride, but you can't afford to rip yourself open. You'll end up back in surgery. You need to heal for a couple of days first."

Jax nodded. When he'd asked Ava to go into the bathroom with him, he was joking. She hadn't taken it like that. No wonder her father was willing to get him out of prison so he could straighten out his hot tempered, spoiled brat of a daughter.

Gemma returned to ICU. Jax was asleep again. The nurse explained to Gemma that it was normal for patients in his condition to sleep most of the time. The body needed sleep to repair itself.

She stood over her son while he slept. She was proud of him. He was a fine, strong, honorable man who refused to turn on his brothers to get out of prison. Still, it broke her heart when that guilty verdict came down. Now he was married to that bitch Ava in an effort to try to get out of prison. Putting up with her would be worth it if it brought her son back to her.

Gently, she smoothed his blonde hair back from his eyes before stroking his cheek. He was perfect. So handsome, the girls had been throwing themselves at him since he was a baby. She was proud that she had created him. That didn't mean he didn't need her to straighten him out. He would always need his strong mother.

She took the seat Ava vacated. It was the closer of the two chairs to Jax. The other seat was on the side with more medical equipment.

Twenty minutes later, Ava returned taking Gemma's seat and giving her a bright fake smile. She sat demurely in the chair her hands folded in her lap bored out of her mind. Outwardly, she was the picture of the devoted wife.

That afternoon, Jax woke up to find the two women in his life on opposite sides of his bed sitting in complete silence.

"Gemma, I'd like a few minutes alone with Mrs. Teller."

Gemma frowned at Ava before leaving the room.

"I'm not Mrs. Teller. I'm Ms. Becker or Ava Becker."

"You're my wife."

"That may be true, but I'm not your property. I'm never taking your name."

"We'll see about that. I'm not sure you are worthy of my last name."

Ava gave him the same fake smile she'd given Gemma.

"Tell yourself that's the reason. I'm just never changing my name. We're not going to be married for long anyway."

"Believe me I'm counting the days," Jax said. "By the way, you can thank me that you were allowed back in my room after the stunt you pulled. I told the nurse that I knocked the glass off my tray and your comment was your odd sense of humor."

Jax had expected Ava to apologize and admit she'd gone to far throwing water on him. She didn't seem at all contrite.

She laughed.

"It was pretty funny. You should have seen your face."

"Ava, you know I almost died yesterday, I'm still pretty damned sick and I can still die."

That wiped the smile off her face. Jax knew immediately it wasn't that she was worried about losing him. Once again, her concern was financial. She couldn't afford to pay another husband.

"You aren't going to die? You're just saying that to scare me."

"No, Ava, I can damned well die. When the nurse changed my dressings, he took cultures of the infection hoping they can make sure I'm on the right antibiotic. No matter how strong and healthy, if an infection can't be stopped . . ."

"You're just going to have to try harder to live and the doctors will have to do better at finding the right antibiotic to kill the infection," Ava said.

"Why don't you go share that with my nurse?" Jax suggested sarcastically. "I'm sure doing their jobs better never occurred to any of the medical professionals. You're a genius Ava."

"I know the genius part," Ava said seriously. "People always underestimate me."

Jax shook his head wondering if Ava was completely detached from reality or only semi-detached. She needed a wake up call and he was just the man for the job.

"The reason I wanted to talk to you privately—what the fuck were you thinking dumping water on me in my medical condition?" Jax demanded. Despite his weakened state there was no mistaking the fury in Jax's husky voice.

"Impulse control issues," she said with a shrug. "Mostly it was pay back for last night when you told me my father was watching and you kissed me and put your tongue in my mouth. You know I don't like that kind of thing. And you wanted me to go in the bathroom with you for sex."

The men on Hallmark movies would never do anything so germ laden. Those guys were always perfect gentlemen and respectful. That's why she liked them so much—the movies and the men. They didn't have toxic masculinity like Jax. They would never shove their disgusting tongues into a woman's mouth and they would never suggest bathroom sex.

"Come on Ava, I didn't shove my tongue down your throat. It was just a nice kiss," Jax said. "As far as bathroom sex, do you really thing that I am physically up to it? I was just joking."

"Well, I thought your penis was hot so I cooled it off. So, how's that?" she grinned. "The water was payback for the kiss and the bathroom sex suggestion."

"Ava, I am not going to put up with this kind of behavior from you."

Ava broke into laughter, doubling over in her chair.

"Ooh, I'm scared. Are you going to hurt me with harsh words? Scold me with a look?"

If Jax had been well, he would have dealt with her right then and there. For now, all he could do was wait, but there would come a day of reckoning for Ava and her misbehavior and it was going to come a hell of a lot sooner than she ever thought possible.


	25. Chapter 25 Enemy of My Enemy

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 25 The Enemy of My Enemy **

"

Ellie spent two hours tracking down a phone number for Marcus Alvarez president of the Mayans Oakland charter. She wanted to talk to the outlaw, but not the same way she and Clay talked. He had reluctantly agreed to meet her at Emilio's a Mexican restaurant on the outskirt's of Oakland. She wasn't thrilled at the location, but the meeting had to take place at some place where no one who knew her would see her.

She'd dressed down so she wouldn't stick out. Gone was the neat suit and high heels. She wore ripped jeans, a dark blue pullover, white sneakers and a slouchy brown faux leather tote bag replacing her lawyer's briefcase.

She walked into the small restaurant and was immediately struck by the smells of Mexican food. One of the things she and Clay had in common was a mutual hatred of Mexican food. She would have preferred the smell of bacon, greasy hamburgers and French fries, but she wasn't there to eat lunch, dinner or a snack.

The hostess gave her a look and pointed her to a back room that was used for private parties.

Alvarez was sitting at a table with a couple of members of his MC.

"May I speak to you alone?" Ellie asked.

"Give us a few minutes," Alvarez said.

The men got up and left.

Ellie took a seat in a chair across from Alvarez.

"You have a message from Clay Morrow?" Alvarez asked.

"No, I'm here on business. My business and not his. You've heard the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

"Get to the point."

"Well, I would like to offer you and your MC legal services in exchange for your help with a problem. I need Jax Teller to die as soon as possible."

"Isn't he in a federal lock-up?"

"Yeah," Ellie said. "He's in Kensington Palace."

Alvarez shook his head.

"Even if I was interested, I don't have reach into a fed prison. Mayans mostly end up in county and state lock-ups."

"Do you know someone who has that kind of reach?"

Alvarez shook his head.

"No. It's harder to hit someone in fed custody. You've wasted your time and mine."

Ellie leaned closer.

"There's another way for us to do business together. I need someone killed. This is where the whole the enemy of my enemy is my friend comes in. I will provide legal services for one year."

Ellie didn't bother to explain there was a good chance that she would lose her law license in the next few months if Jax Teller didn't die soon. That detail would just clutter the discussion.

"Who do you want killed?"

"Clay. He's a problem for me. I want him gone."

Alvarez laughed.

"Really? That's the reason. He's a problem for you? You want me to kill him just like that? If it were that easy, I would have killed him already."

"What would it take for you to kill him? I don't want it to look like a hit. I was thinking you could make it look like an accident."

"You're crazy. If it were that easy, I would have killed him long ago. I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but I'm not killing Clay."

"If you change your mind . . ."

"I won't. I don't know what's going on and I don't care. We're not hired killers."

"If you know someone or you change your mind, you have my number."

Ellie left. It was a lot harder arranging a hit than it was on TV. She thought Alvarez might have at least been a little interested.

OK. Who else could she get to kill Clay and Jax?


	26. Chapter 26 Attempted Hit

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 26 Attempted Hit **

"

Ava graciously gave up her chair to Opie to let him sit by Jax along with Clay and Gemma. She ate lunch in the hospital cafeteria with Tig.

Tig told her some MC stories and she listened because she was bored and there wasn't anything else to do. The hospital didn't allow phone use. If she wanted to use her phone, she had to sneak into the bathroom. It wasn't the ideal place to play phone games, so she appreciated Tig's stories.

She found the MC world alien to her privileged one. The existence of this life of violence fascinated her a little because married to Jax or not, she wasn't part of it. She was a voyeur looking at a reality TV show. Her life with her father would continue as before except no clubbing or partying since she was technically married.

She dragged her lunch out. It was better to sit in the cafeteria than play devoted wife sitting at Jax's bedside watching him sleep.

When Gemma, Clay and Opie got a cold drink in the cafeteria, Ava and Tig went up to sit at Jax's bedside.

"Only immediate family," the nurse said.

"I'm his brother," Tig said.

The nurse looked at Ava.

"He's his brother," Ava replied.

The nurse let Tig pass. It didn't matter anyway. Jax was sleeping and his visitors were quiet. The nurse got the results back from Jax's culture and had a call in to the doctor about changing his antibiotics. He was aggressive with infections. He'd seen healthy people end up getting sepsis and having amputations done to get ahead of the infection until either they lost enough body parts or they died. It was a horrible thing for the patient and the family.

Later that afternoon, TB arrived carrying a large box of assorted cookies for the nurses and a smaller sack of chocolate chip cookies for Jax. Normally, food wasn't allowed in ICU, but Jax's nurse agreed to let him have one of the chocolate chip cookies.

"I bribed the nurses with cookies, but he only agreed to one cookie," TB told Jax when he woke up.

"Thank you," Jax said gratefully.

"How are you feeling?" TB asked.

"Better than yesterday," Jax replied.

"His infection isn't responding to antibiotics," Ava added. "Could you get a specialist to consult? I would feel a lot better if we got a second opinion."

TB was shocked at this show of concern for Jax. Maybe his daughter was starting to come around a little or she couldn't afford to pay another husband. Either way, it didn't matter. He liked Jax. He wanted to help.

"Let me talk to the nurse and see what he thinks," TB said.

Jax's medical situation was complicated by Jax being an inmate. TB didn't care what red tape he needed to cut. If he needed to get Jax better medical care, he would get him better medical care.

TB left the newlyweds alone for a few minutes. Gemma and the guys had gone back to the hotel. Gemma was mentally and physically exhausted.

"You really worried about me?" Jax asked. He took a small careful bite of the chocolate chip cookie TB had given him.

"Your nurse is," Ava replied.

TB returned.

"Your nurse is waiting for a call from your doctor before he can change your medication. If you aren't better by tomorrow morning, I'll get this resolved. Ava will help me. For now, I need to talk to Jax privately as his attorney."

"I'm his wife. Shouldn't I stay?" Ava asked.

"We're going to discuss the legal hell I'm going to rain down on the prison. Do you really want to hear a bunch of legal talk? Why don't you wait for me in the cafeteria? We should leave for the night and give Jax some peace and quiet. Shut the door when you leave. I've already explained to the guard that I'm Jax's attorney and we need to have a confidential discussion."

"OK," Ava said. She stood up, leaned over and gave Jax a kiss on the forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow. Get better."

TB waited until the door was closed.

"How are you really?"

"I'm getting better," Jax insisted.

"What happened in prison? Was it just prison violence or was it a targeted hit?"

"It was a targeted hit. I was in line waiting for the phone to talk to Ava when three guys jumped me," Jax sucked down a little water from the plastic cup with the state approved paper straw before taking another bite of cookie.

Jax's face looked worse than yesterday. The bruises had deepened in color and his face was still swollen. The cuts on his hands were healing, but they were still bruised and swollen.

"Looks like you fought hard for your life," TB said.

"Yeah, but they would have succeeded except this young guard called for back up and then he broke it up and saved my life. He's a good guy," Jax said smiling thinly. "Sometimes at night, we talk. If it hadn't been for him coming along when he did, I'd be dead."

"You think the hit was related to your MC or do you think it was something else?"

"MCs usually don't have the reach to get into a Fed prison. It took a lot of money and the guys knew they were going to get caught. There are cameras everywhere. Maybe one of them will turn."

TB nodded his head thoughtfully.

"Someone's getting nervous about your appeal."

"That's what I think too," Jax said.

"Stay in the hospital as long as possible. When you go back to prison, I'm sure I can get you protective custody. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. I'd like to live long enough to get out of prison."

"I'll check in with your nurse tomorrow to see if I need to get you better medical help, but I won't be around until the afternoon. I've got to give a speech at a trial lawyers' conference. I'll be eating lunch with the governor. I'll get his ear for a few minutes to begin telling him about your case. We should have your appeal packet ready to go next week and I'm going to call in a lot of favors and get it moved through the system at the speed of light."

"It seems too good to be true," Jax said.

"You deserve a break. You've gotten screwed by the government and your attorney. And my daughter needs a husband by her side and not in prison."

"She's something else," Jax said.

"Her mother insisted that we not spank her. She believed in explaining to her. Sometimes, you have to slap a kid's hands. I never did that. Always tried to respect her mother's parenting style even after she died. I just didn't have the patience so the nannies raised Ava."

"Yeah, I get that. She asked me if I was going to scold her or say harsh words."

"That sounds familiar," TB said standing up. "I'd be OK if you spanked her. It's kind of an old fashioned way, but if Ava won't listen to you . . . Extreme measures for extreme situations."

"I can hardly wait to get out of prison."

Jax had all kinds of plans for his headstrong bride. Ava was going to be a proper MC wife when he finished with her.

"

_**Author's Note: I have a new story. It's kind of a prequel to this story because the Jax in it is much more like this Jax than my other story Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run. It actually does have a plot with a twist.**_


	27. Chapter 27 Double Set Up

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 27 Double Set up Double Trouble **

"

The next morning Jax was better but he was still in ICU. The newest antibiotic had helped lower his fever but he still had some distance to go before infection would no longer be an issue.

Kevin from TB's law firm had a private meeting with Jax. He used his iPhone to take video of Jax looking sick and frail. It would be used in later court proceedings.

Jax slept most of the time as his body fought off the infection and healed itself. Once again Ava and Gemma sat at Jax's side with Opie, Clay and Tig rotating in through the day.

TB got back too late to visit Jax that night, but he'd spoken to him briefly by phone. Jax believed in TB and he believed he was his best hope to get out of prison. Marrying Ava even without the money would be worth it if it got him out. Then the time would come to go after those that set him up. He was less concerned about the ATF. He wanted to know who got Lowen to throw the case. He had ideas about who that might be. He hoped he was wrong.

"

"***********************************"

"

TB's money was buying a lot of investigative firepower. He wanted Jax out of prison ASAP and he was using large amounts of money to get it done quickly. A single investigator was looking into Ellie Lowen. She was an appeal issue. Another investigator was looking into the ADA that prosecuted Jax.

The actual meat of the investigation was into the two ATF agents that set Jax up. Two sets of investigators totaling thirty were looking into Josh Kohn and June Stahl. Some were working on uncovering every misdeed they had ever been involved in working backwards from setting up Jax Teller.

A smaller hardcore team of ten were intent on a special mission: getting Josh Kohn or June Stahl to admit setting up Jax on video. The approach was tailored to each agent. For Josh Kohn, it was all about his ego. He was approached by Mark a retired Navy SEAL who became Kohn's best buddy. He told him all kinds of SEAL stories. None of which was true. After a few weeks, he told him of a couple of classified missions. That earned him Kohn's trust.

While Jax was sleeping in ICU for the second night, Mark and Kohn were eating dinner and drinking in a booth at an Italian restaurant. Mark told Kohn about some black ops stuff. Kohn wasn't completely drunk, but his judgement was impaired. He shared some minor stories of ATF misdeeds by other agents and a couple by him wanting to impress his cool friend. Mark wasn't impressed.

Kohn tried again to impress Mark. He wanted his cool friend to think that he was a badass. He told him about setting up an outlaw piece of shit biker named Jax Teller. He laid it all out. Mark was impressed.

The video and audio were shot in a public place so Josh Kohn would not be able to argue that he'd had an expectation of privacy and get the recordings thrown out. They had him. This was more than enough to destroy the ATF, Josh Kohn and the case against Jax Teller.

A half hour away another team was working June Stahl also with full video and audio. A blonde bombshell named Paula was sent in. She was a real model with an eye-popping lingerie portfolio. She was also a first-rate investigator with a clever quick mind.

She began hanging out at a bar that June frequented. June moved in or her pretty quickly but Paula played her. While Jax was in his ICU hospital bed and Kohn was trying to impress Mark, June and Paula were getting cozy over drinks and bar snacks in a private booth. June was telling her about being an ATF agent. Paula asked her about the Sons explaining that two of them had raped her sister. She said she would do anything to put those bastards in jail.

June had some plan to use Paula as a confidential informant sending her into SAMCRO's clubhouse. Paula was very hesitant and didn't trust that June would follow through on her promise to help get the bastards that raped her sister.

After a few more drinks, June told her that she was determined to get SAMCRO and the Sons. She wanted to assure Paula that she had it in for the MC as much as Paula. She bragged to her about setting up Jax Teller and putting his badass in prison. She promised that if Paula could find out who raped her sister, she would make sure the guys went to prison even if she had to set them up like Jax Teller.

Later that night, the group of investigators came together to review that night's work. The story each told about setting up Jax was remarkably similar. It would be hard for them to claim the stories were made up when the two stories matched.

They had exactly what they had been hired to find—conclusive proof that Jax Teller was set up. This was going to be devastating to the ATF.

The next morning, TB received an early morning call. They sent him the video. He watched with a mix of admiration for the men and women who carried out this bold plan and joy that they had what they needed to get Jax his freedom.

Now, it would require some careful thought to come up with the best plan to get Jax out of prison as quickly as possible. He was sure that if Jax thought it was a hit on him, then it was a hit. He was worried that this information was so explosive, it could lead to another attempt on Jax's life. Someone might think killing Jax would stop the investigation into all that had gone on to get Jax falsely convicted.

He was thinking about taking a very bold step to get Jax out of prison before another attempt could be made on his life.

"

_**Author's Note: I know sometimes writers create characters that aren't likable and the writer doesn't realize that and readers helpfully point that out. I know Ava is awful. She's not likable. She isn't supposed to be because there needs to be room for her character to grow and change. Also some of the things that Jax does to her are going to be pretty awful and you have to believe that she deserves what he does to her. I know some of the things he's going to do to her and it's going to be very mean. He isn't perfect and he goes overboard on being mean and they have to find a way to work and grow into better people for each other. There might also be a murder mystery. **_

_**And Jax will be getting out of prison within a chapter or two. Look for the pic of a shirtless Jax and you will know that he is out of prison. And he will probably remain shirtless for the rest of the covers unless I get bored.  
**_


	28. Chapter 28 Murder Attempt 2

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 28 Murder Attempt 2 **

"

It was one of the oldest ways to kill someone in the hospital, send someone in disguised as a nurse, put something through the IV and then kill them. That's the way the plan was supposed to go.

The dark headed woman in standard hospital green scrubs with a fake hospital ID badge walked into ICU. She flirted with the guard outside Jax's door before leaving. Thirty minutes later she returned for some more flirting and a cup of coffee laced with sleeping meds for the guard. Once more, she left the guard, returning in twenty minutes when she knew Jax's nurse was on her break.

The nights are usually quiet on an ICU. The patients have been drugged and medicated for the night. It's a slow and somewhat relaxing time. It was in short, the best time to send someone in to kill a patient.

The guard was slumped in his chair, eyes closed. The nurses were up around the other end of ICU near the patients. The rooms on either side of Jax were empty.

The fake nurse walked into Jax's room and pulled out a syringe.

"**********"

"

Jax had been awake for about twenty minutes. His pain medication had worn off and if he hadn't been as tough as nails biker, he would have asked for more pain medication. His eyes were still closed. He was hoping he could go back to sleep.

When the nurse walked into his room, he opened his eyes. This wasn't his nurse. His nurse was a large burly man named Vince.

"Just coming to give you some more medication."

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. His gut told him this wasn't a nurse and that syringe she was holding was going to kill him.

"Get out!" he shouted.

She reached for his IV line. He grabbed his IV line and ripped it out of his arm. He had so much adrenalin flowing through this system; he didn't even feel the sharp pain as he pulled the IV line free. She changed her focus and began trying to inject him with the syringe's contents.

Jax wasn't at anywhere near full strength. They fought and he continued to shout. Finally the sounds of running feet could be heard. The nurse dropped the syringe and ran out the doors of the ICU chased by one of the orderlies.

Three nurses rushed into his room.

"What happened?" the first nurse into the room asked.

"A fake nurse tried to inject me with something. She dropped the syringe."

The nurse put on gloves, carefully picked up the syringe and put it in a plastic bag.

"Did she get any of it in you?" the nurse asked.

The other two nurses were gloved up and now working to stop the bleeding from Jax's arm and the bleeding from this chest. The fight had caused his stitches to open up and rupture.

"No. That's why I pulled my IV."

"OK. I'm going to page the doctor. You're bleeding a lot. You may need to go back into surgery to sew you back up."

"We need to call security. This may have been attempted murder."

All the noise woke the security guard sitting outside Jax's door. He wandered in.

"Anything happen I should know about?" he asked.


	29. Chapter 29 Hospital Rush

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 29 Hospital Rush **

"

Ava's eyes squinted as she looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand in her hotel bedroom. She put her cell phone down and got out of bed.

She walked to the other end of the suite and tapped on her father's door. It was the first time in her life that she had awakened her father in the middle of the night. As a child, she'd had strict instructions to wake her nanny up. Well, there was no nanny now.

"Come in," he called.

TB slept in pajamas made from the finest Egyptian cotton usually in navy or charcoal. Tonight had been a navy night.

"Jax is going into surgery soon," Ava said. "He got in another fight and they have to stitch him up," Ava said frowning. Jax's toxic masculinity was always getting him into trouble.

TB shook his head. Ava had a lot to learn about life and the man she married.

"Ava, I have previously explained to you that Jax doesn't get into recreational fights. When he fights, it's to save his life. Someone must have tried to kill him at the hospital. We need to see him before he goes into surgery. I'll call Gemma, tell her what's happened and offer her a ride. I'll get the car brought around. You have fifteen minutes to get dressed."

"I can't get ready that fast."

"Skip hair and make up, put on jeans and a T shirt. You'll have ten minutes to spare. I'm sure Jax won't mind if you aren't picture perfect."

"It sounded like he's going to be OK."

"Ava, get your butt back to your room and get dressed," he ordered sharply. "A hospital does not call in the middle of the night with good news. We need to go see him."

Ava scowled at her father, shut his bedroom door and marched back to her room. She was the kind of girl who wouldn't dream of leaving the house without doing her hair and applying make-up. What if someone took a picture of her?

Jax's toxic masculinity had even rubbed off on her father. He was much more bossy ever since he met Jax. Her father had never been woke, but now he was practically in the Dark Ages with his thinking.

She pulled on jeans and a black short sleeved T-shirt. She brushed her hair and pulled it back into a big thick ponytail. She was lucky she'd inherited her father's thick beautiful russet hair rather than her mother's thin dingy brown hair although had she gotten her mother's dingy colored hair, it wouldn't have stayed that color as long as hair color existed. She quickly added a coat of mascara to her lashes and burgundy lip gloss.

Her father called her name telling her that he was going to leave without her. She slipped her feet into black booties, grabbed her black leather jacket to keep her warm against the 4 am cold and grabbed her large handbag also black. She was ready to go play devoted wife for another day.

Her father had his laptop in its case and slung over his shoulder.

"Gemma's waiting in the lobby for us. Her husband is still asleep and she'll call him with an update."

Ava nodded. She wasn't at her best in the morning and it had taken her hours to fall asleep so she was tired on top of it.

When they got to the hospital, two police detectives were just leaving Jax's room.

"What's going on?" TB demanded.

"Let's all go inside Jax's room and talk," Vince said expertly herding TB, Ava and Gemma into Jax's room.

"You want to explain your part?" Vince asked Jax.

The bruises on Jax's face and hands had darkened to purple. They were especially noticeable against his deathly white skin. He winced as he tried to sit up. Vince handed him the bed control so Jax could raise himself.

"I woke up, couldn't go back to sleep and saw this nurse walk into my room. I'd already had my meds. She tried to inject something into my IV. I ripped the IV out of my arm to stop her. She then tried to stab me with the syringe. I fought with her but I'm not anywhere near full strength. I shouted for help. Finally some nurses ran into my room."

"Where were you?" TB demanded looking at Vince.

"On my meal break. One of the nurses on the floor was supposed to be covering for me."

"It wasn't his fault."

"Where the hell was the guard?" Gemma asked.

"Asleep," Vince said disapproval in his voice. "Claims the coffee the nurse gave him put him to sleep. We retrieved the syringe and paper coffee cup and turned them over to the police. We did get them to agree to give us a small amount of the liquid in the syringe. Our lab would be able to identify the syringe's contents faster. It was a heart medication that would have given him a heart attack. It would have looked like natural causes."

"There must be video of the nurse," TB said.

"Law enforcement got the video from security. It's supposed to be good quality. An orderly tried to catch the nurse, but she lost him," Vince said.

Gemma stood on one side of Jax's bed and brushed his hair back from his face.

Not to be outdone, Ava went to stand on the other side of Jax her fingers on his arm.

"What about his medical condition?" Gemma asked.

"The surgeon is here and is getting ready for the surgery. We'll take Jax into the OR in about fifteen minutes. He'll go in and repair any damage he finds. In the fight, Jax pulled and ripped some of his stitches. There's some internal bleeding."

"He's going to be OK right?" Ava asked.

"So nice to know you care," Jax said smiling at his wife.

"Of course I do, darling," she said.

She'd watched "Hart to Hart" on TV a few and that would be two too many times. They were always calling each other darling. It made her want to gag. It was so fake.

"The surgery should go well," Vince said.

"I need to speak with Jax privately for a few minutes."

Gemma looked at Jax wondering what was going on between Jax and TB that he would want these precious minutes before Jax had to fight for his life again in a surgery.

"I need to talk to TB," Jax said.

Vince nodded and left followed by Ava and Gemma.

"What's that all about?" Gemma asked Ava.

"No idea," Ava said.

TB closed the door, pulled the blinds and got his phone out of his pocket.

"I have something I want you to see."

TB turned his phone on and pulled up the video he'd received last night.

"

_**Author's Note: Getting Jax out of prison takes some work. Just a couple of more chapters. How do you think Ava finds out her husband is out of prison and now she can't just play wife, she has to be a wife?**_


	30. Chapter 30 Nuclear Option

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 30 Nuclear Option **

"

TB once dreamed of fighting for the little guy against big corporations. He'd done some of that with his class action suits, but at some point it had become about getting bigger and bigger jury awards. He'd accumulated more money than he would ever spend.

With each round of Ava's misbehavior from wrecking cars to trashing homes, he was forced to realize that when he died, all his hard work would be for nothing. His daughter's biggest regret at his death would be that he didn't leave her more money.

In meeting Jax and deciding to entrust straightening his daughter out to him, he'd rediscovered his passion for helping someone screwed over by the system. Getting Jax out of prison was now his crusade and passion. He felt energized, not just to get Jax out of prison, but to reform the system that had been corrupted while getting every penny he could out of them to partially compensate Jax for all that he'd endured.

"Before I show you this, you have to promise that you will not tell anyone what I'm showing you or say anything about my new plan to get you out of prison. I haven't told Ava anything. Ava wouldn't tell anyone anything, but she could let something slip. That's one of the reasons I'm keeping her in the dark."

"I haven't said anything either. I don't want my mother to get her hopes up. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Who knows you're here other than the prison?"

"My MC."

"Who benefits by keeping you in prison?"

"I've been thinking about that too. Clay, Gemma's husband, benefits if I stay in prison. I was bumping heads with him over some of the MC's activities. I don't like some of the things he's trying to get the club into and I have a lot of influence. With me stuck in prison, he gets to run it anyway he wants."

"Does he have influence with your attorney?"

Jax rubbed his beard with his hand as he thought about that.

"Yeah. He's known the law firm for years and from what you've said, Lowen was bribed."

"I think that there are going to be more attempts on your life. Last night, the investigators sent me this. This version's cropped.

TB showed him the short version or both June Stahl's and Joshua Kohn's video.

"That's it, right?" Jax asked. Despite the pain and drugs, Jax felt a jolt of excitement and hope charge his body. "This proves I was set up."

"Good news. The bad news, it makes that target on your back bigger."

"Federal prison. Federal agents. This is a double black eye to the ATF. I don't like the odds of my coming out of prison alive."

"How do you feel about a nuclear option?"

TB outlined his full scale war designed to destroy the two ATF agents and the prosecutor that if successful could see Jax getting out of prison before he got out of the hospital—the downside was they could be making a lot of enemies.

"What do you think?" TB asked when he explained what he had in mind.

"That's going to cost you a fortune," Jax said.

"Don't worry about that. I don't think we have a choice. Once the ATF finds out about what we have on their agents, they may send in a hit on you only they'll use guards, turn off the cameras and they'll get away with it. What do you want to do?"

"Nuke em till they glow," Jax said.

"And that's why I needed to talk to you before you had surgery. I couldn't afford to lose a day waiting for surgery and not getting a chance to discuss this with you until tonight. I need to order the media buys and get the reporting team working on the program. We don't have long to get this put into place."

"Best father in law ever," Jax said with a grin. He had no idea when he agreed to marry the annoying, spoiled princess Ava that he would hit the father in law lottery.

"I'll move some work around and we'll hit this hard. I'm going back to the hotel to work. Will your mother look after Ava?"

"More or less," Jax said.

TB smiled. "I get that."

TB took some video of Jax and his bandaged arm where he'd ripped the IV out of his arm to save his life. He also asked him to recount how he'd had to fight for his life in the hospital and how the guard outside his room had fallen asleep. It would be a great addition to the video TB had planned.

"I'll let you have a few minutes with your mother and Ava."

"Thanks for everything," Jax said.

"We'll nuke em till they glow," TB said as he left Jax's hospital room.

He only had a few days to get his team to perform a huge amount of work. That was OK. That was why he hired the best.

"

**Author's Note: What TB is telling Jax may not make sense but it will when his plan hits.**


	31. Chapter 31 Motel 6

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 31 Motel 6 **

"

Gemma called Clay a few hours later to let him know that Jax had come out of his surgery and would be OK barring another infection or attempt on his life. Due to his precarious physical state only she and Ava were going to be allowed to see him today.

Clay gave the good news to the guys. They were happy that Jax had survived another close call. Leave it to Jax to survive another murder attempt, Clay thought sourly. Why couldn't he just die?

He went into the bedroom he and Gemma were sharing in the suite and turned on the room's shower before pulling out his burner phone and calling Lowen.

"We need to meet," Clay said without bothering to identify himself.

"Why?"

"Get a motel room nearby so we can meet without worrying about being overheard."

"OK," Lowen said. She was excited. If he wanted her to get a motel room, that meant sex. "I don't have anything on my schedule so it shouldn't take me long maybe an hour or so."

The only thing she had on her schedule was getting ready for a hearing before the Bar Association and that was still a few weeks off.

"Fine. Call and I'll meet you," Clay said ending the call.

Clay needed some alone time to meet with Lowen. As Sergeant-at-Arms, it was Tig's job to ride with him and protect him. This was especially important when they weren't on their home turf. He didn't want him to know of his meeting with Lowen so he was going to have to ditch him. Fortunately, he could always use the convenient migraine excuse.

"I've got a damned migraine," Clay said as he walked out of the bedroom. "You guys go over to the hospital and watch over Gemma. Keep her from killing Ava. We don't need someone else in jail."

The guys laughed. They knew that whoever married Jax was never going to get Gemma's approval. It never even seemed to occur to Ava to try.

The guys got dressed and headed over to the hospital leaving Clay alone in the hotel suite. He paced and grew angrier by the second. Finally Lowen called with an address for a Motel 6 about twenty minutes from his location.

Lowen must have been watching for him because he'd barely tapped at the door before it was jerked open.

"How is everything going?" she asked.

"Let's see, there was another botched hit on Jax."

Ellie's face fell. She'd been hoping like hell this second attempt she'd put together using a former client would prove more successful than the hit Clay put together.

"There was another attempt on his life?" she said trying to sound surprised.

"You didn't know anything about it?"

She shook her head.

"No. What happened?"

Most attorneys are skilled liars or at least good at misleading others. Ellie Lowen was just an average liar which explained one of the reasons her law practice wasn't thriving.

Clay answered her by throwing her up against a wall and punching her in the stomach. It was a good place to hit a woman so she didn't look beat.

Ellie doubled over in pain, gasping for breath.

"Why did you do that?" she panted.

"You fucking liar," Clay growled in her face. "I know you were behind that second hit on Jax."

"Look, Clay, I wanted to give you deniability," she said clutching her stomach.

He grabbed her by the hair and spit in her face.

"You think I'm fucking stupid?"

"Of course not," she said quickly. Normally, she felt some fear with Clay and it was a turn on. Today though, he was in a rage. He'd hit her before but not like this. The fear today was more like terror.

"Think about this," he hissed in her face. "How many people know where Jax is? The prison and the MC. I could fucking get exposed over this. Jax might figure out someone gave his location away."

"He'll just think it was someone at the prison." Ellie said soothingly.

"How the hell did they get his room number? I gave it to you like a fucking idiot," Clay said angry with himself. He punched her in the shoulder. It wasn't the shoulder punches little boys give to little girls they are crushing on. It was a hard hitting shoulder punch that would leave a large painful bruise.

"Could have bribed someone. It could have come from the prison."

Clay looked at her, his blue eyes almost seemed to bulge with rage.

"You don't make a move that I don't know about. What the fuck happens if this murder attempt gets traced back to you? Gemma says the cops are already investigating it and there's a good video of the fake nurse."

Ellie swore. This wasn't good. A good video and the killer had been in the system. What if the image was good enough for facial recognition or was that something that was just done mostly on TV? If her failed hitwoman found out there was video, she could panic. She was going to have to do something about her. She could rollover on her to get a reduced charge for the failed hit. This was bad. She could end up with an attempted murder charge.

"It can't be traced to me."

Clay kicked a desk chair across the room.

"If it gets traced to you, everyone will wonder why you wanted Jax dead. Jax isn't stupid like Gemma. He'll figure out that I wanted him out of the way so I could run the club without his interference."

"You don't have a motive to kill him while he's in prison," Ellie said quickly. "The hit can't be traced to me. I made sure of that," Ellie lied.

"You better hope like hell that's true," Clay said.

He knew he shouldn't believe her, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Maybe kill her. He'd have to think it through a little more. He would have to make sure not to leave evidence and with all that damned technology it wasn't easy. He sure as hell couldn't kill her now. If he did it, he would have to make a careful plan.

Clay roughly shoved her face down on the bed. She heard him unzip his fly. All the physical abuse he'd heaped on her was worth it in that moment because he was going to have sex with her.

She knew she needed help but there were things that she could never tell a therapist.

She gasped and shut her eyes as he shoved himself inside her with a grunt.


	32. Chapter 32

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 32 Prelude**

"

TB loved these moments when there was a lot to do without a lot of days to do it in. He felt like a conductor leading an orchestra moving his PIs onto targets, his teams of attorneys into different areas of law he wanted researched and his new team of public relations people into putting it all together into one beautiful package to get Jax out of prison.

He felt more alive than he had in years and he owed it all to his daughter's selection of a husband. She had no way of knowing that picking a convict for a husband would lead to this reawakening inside him. He did appreciate the irony that Ellie Lowen was also part of that reason. She'd botched Jax's case and gotten Jax and Ava together. And soon she would be going down for her part in getting Jax convicted, but she wasn't his primary focus. He was focusing on the ATF agents and the prosecutorial misconduct for now.

"

"*******

Ava was in her own little hell. Once Jax was out of recovery, she and Gemma were allowed to see him. He was groggy and just wanted to sleep, so she and Gemma sat on either side of his bed. She'd gone and gotten a couple of magazines from the hospital gift shop and was reading them. It wouldn't have been so bad but they weren't allowed to have food or drink in the room and the straight back chair wasn't very comfortable.

She and Gemma didn't have lunch together pretending the reason was they wanted one of them to be with Jax at all times. Ava walked to a deli across the street. She needed a little alone time. She felt smothered.

When Gemma returned from lunch, she had yarn with her and began to do something with it. Ava wasn't sure what the hell she was doing or why.

"You want me to teach you to crochet?" Gemma asked with that fake honeyed sweetness that got under Ava's skin and pissed her off.

"No," Ava said and returned to reading her magazine. She had deliberately not asked her what she was making. She didn't care.

Ava focused on summer fashion and the cute little sun dresses she wanted to buy. Of course, there wasn't any place to wear them except Charming. She hated Charming. It was the worst place she had ever lived.

The only place she went now was to the prison to visit Jax. She couldn't imagine spending three years visiting him every week. She just repeated her mantra that marriage to Jax was better than being really married over and over again.

Gemma was really making progress on what looked to be a blanket thing of some kind. It was white and she was putting in a couple of stripes bright blue. Ava wondered why she just didn't get a blanket at a store.

Ava went to the cafeteria to give Gemma a little alone time with Jax. She sat with Tig and Opie and enjoyed an ice cold Coke. It was nice to be out of that room. The guys had taken over a table in a back corner of the cafeteria. She had no idea what they did all the time while they were waiting.

"Jax looks a lot better," Ava said as she sat down.

"As long as he doesn't get another infection," Tig said.

"I understand Jax getting shivved in prison, but for someone to try to kill him on the outside . . ." Opie's voice trailed off and he shook his head.

"It doesn't make any sense," Tig said finishing Opie's thought.

"He say anything to you?" Opie asked.

Ava shook her head.

"He told us about the attempt—how he ripped the IV out of his arm to save his life. He thinks pretty fast."

"Jax's a smart guy," Tig said. "He may not have a fancy education, but his mind is first-rate."

Ava didn't say anything for once. If seemed to her that if Jax were so smart, he would have done something more with him life than end up in Charming in an outlaw motorcycle gang.

In her mind, a man wasn't successful unless he wore a suit to work and brought home millions of dollars a year. Anything less wasn't success. She didn't understand how easily her father accepted his blue collar son-in-law. It sure as hell wasn't to please her. There was just something about his attitude towards Jax that made her uneasy.

"I hope whoever is behind these attempts just gives up and goes away," Ava said wearily.

Tig and Opie exchanged glances. Ava had a lot to learn about the man she married, his lifestyle and how things worked in his world.

"

"*******

"

The cops were hunting for her failed hitwoman. The news was carrying pictures of her from the surveillance video at the hospital and it was only a matter of time before she was identified. Ellie knew she would give her up in thirty seconds or less and then well Clay would think she was going to roll over on him and tell about her part in putting Jax behind bars. And she would if she could trade her information for her freedom.

She wasn't going to let that happen though. She'd gotten herself into this mess and she would get herself out of it. She was bringing a present of fentanyl laced crank to her failed hitwoman. She'd scarf up all the crank, overdose and die. Problem solved.

Ellie knew she was starting to lose it. Oh fuck her, she had really screwed up this time. Why else would she have been stupid enough and desperate enough to hire a junkie to make a hit in a hospital?

"

_**Author's Note: I moved Quarantine & Love: Jax and the Romance Writer back to "M". If you haven't discovered the story at least give chapter 11 & 12 a read. A lot of readers find them funny and that's the sole purpose of this story to give everyone a laugh. Jax faces some harsh truth about sex.**_


	33. Chapter 33 Confession

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 33 Confession**

"

Jax woke to find Ava asleep her head resting on his bed's guard rail, her reddish brown hair down over her face so he could only see her the curve of her lips. It was dark outside and it had been dark when she got to his room this morning. He was surprised to find that she was still at the hospital. It had been a long day.

"Hey," Jax called softly. "Ava, wake up."

"I just closed my eyes for a second," she said opening her eyes and straightening up in her chair.

"You're going to hurt your neck. Why don't you just go back to the hotel? One of the guy's will give you a ride back on his bike."

"I didn't want to leave until you woke up again."

For a second, Jax was surprised at this sudden display of thoughtfulness from his bride. Maybe there was some hope for her after all. Then again, she probably just wanted to make sure he was alive to protect her investment in him.

"To what do I owe this display of caring?"

"Partly my father. When I got the call from the hospital, I woke him up to tell him. He insisted that we come to the hospital. I thought it sounded like you were going to be OK, but he made me come to the hospital. Playing the good little wife is exhausting."

"Being in the hospital and having a second murder attempt in three days isn't a lot of fun either."

"When the hospital called, the woman just said there had been a fight and you had gotten injured and were likely going into surgery, I thought you had just gotten into a fight because that's just the sort of thing that you would do. My father told me that you don't get into fights to just fight. He said you were fighting for your life."

"You heard me say that before I had surgery."

She nodded.

"I know. When I heard from the hospital, I sort of blamed you for the fight in my mind. I shouldn't have done that without finding out what really happened. I'm glad you figured out that fake nurse was there to kill you and you stopped her. Not just because I've got so much money invested in you."

Jax looked at her with surprise.

"Thank you, Ava." Jax said. "Is your father around?"

"No, he has been working from our hotel suite all day. He's called once to check on you and that's it," Ava said clearly annoyed. "Always placing work ahead of everything else."

"He's helping me," Jax said.

"How?"

"He's going to sue the prison and the government over the first murder attempt and I'm sure he will be suing the hospital for what happened today. That guard was an idiot—taking a drink from someone he doesn't know," Jax shook his head with disgust. "That guy ought to be working mall security in the middle of no where."

That wasn't completely true. He knew that at some point TB would either sue the prison and the hospital for him or he would refer him to attorneys that could, but the lawsuit story was a way to cover what he and TB were really working on. He'd tell him about the cover story the next time he saw him.

"My father loves money and I'm sure he will do everything he can to get you as much of it as he can. It's the great love of his life after all," Ava said bitterly.

"I think you underestimate him," Jax said.

"Why would someone want to kill you?" Ava said ignoring his defense of her father. "I mean, I sort of understand that killing goes on all the time in prison, but trying to kill someone in a hospital doesn't happen that often. Who would want you dead?"

Jax shrugged. "I have no idea."

Gemma walked in at that moment back from having dinner in the hospital cafeteria with the guys and Clay.

"I'm going to take off now," Ava said.

She left in typical Ava fashion without bothering to kiss her new husband good-bye. That act was reserved for her father.


	34. Chapter 34 Detonate

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 34 Detonate**

"

Jax managed to get out of ICU without another attempt on his life or another life threatening infection. Each day in the hospital's prison ward passed slowly with Gemma and Ava sitting on either side of his bed. He preferred being alone so he could watch TV. The atmosphere was less tense. He was almost looking forward to returning to prison.

TB hadn't been able to get everything together before Jax returned to Kensington palace, but he had gotten the warden to place Jax in protective custody. He got a private cell and increased security. The downside, he was in his cell for 23 hours a day, but he had a TV, books and safety. It was a necessary trade-off until TB could work his legal magic and get him out permanently.

His team of investigators discovered that the prosecutor's son had some firearms charges against him that were mysteriously dropped after Jax was convicted. Ironically, his son's alleged crimes were much worse than the firearms charges against Jax.

TB was determined to get the truth out quickly to protect Jax. Once the truth about his trumped up conviction was revealed, anyone who wanted to kill him to keep the dirty conviction secret would no longer have a motive. That should keep Jax safe until he could get him out of prison.

A few days before the half hour documentary was set to air, TB surprised Ava with a ten day stay at her favorite very expensive spa retreat in North Carolina near the Great Smoky Mountains. He told her it was a reward for all her good behavior dealing with Jax's medical condition. He even added that he could see just how devoted she was to him.

The night the documentary was to air, he rented out the city's small theater usually used to put on badly performed plays. Tonight, there would be a different kind of performance on video. His tech staff was on hand to make sure playing the documentary went flawlessly.

Gemma handled the guests. All she knew was there was going to be a documentary about Jax. She didn't know the documentary was actually going to air on TV. The MC, crow-eaters and friends of the club would all be there. She rounded out the guest list with a few others including Elliot Oswald. Of course Wayne Unser would also be there.

TB was pleased with the final cut of the documentary. They had focused grouped the video, so they could fine tune it to make sure their message hit the audience. Jax Teller was an innocent man who had been set up by two corrupt ATF agents, the prosecutor made a deal to take Jax's case to trial knowing it was a fake case in exchange for dropping gun charges against his son and someone or a group was trying to kill Jax to keep the truth about his trial quiet.

To round out the documentary, TB got some video from Gemma of Jax as a child and young man. He looked almost saintly at the beginning of the documentary. At the end, he looked frail, sick and near death in a hospital bed.

TB was in the theater's audience when it played. Gemma watched it and was in tears by the end. She didn't know any of the details about how Jax had been set up. The anger from the audience was almost tangible. Jax had been right. He had been set up and framed.

When the documentary was over, TB told everyone that the documentary they had just seen was going to air on TV in an hour. He said that there would be another airing of the documentary in two days. He explained that it was his hope that it would put enough pressure on the government to get Jax's case reviewed by the presiding judge immediately.

Gemma thanked TB warmly for all that he'd done to free Jax. Clay said all the right words, but TB had the feeling that his heart wasn't in it. The documentary was a big hit with the theater's audience. Every member of the MC made a point of personally thanking TB for what he'd done for Jax.

Strangely enough, no one asked about Ava. He didn't mention that his daughter had gone to a spa retreat. He knew she wouldn't find out about the documentary until she returned to Charming. It was one those places where phones, televisions and laptops were forbidden. They filled their guests' time with activities from crafts to massages to hikes. It was all part of the de-stressing from modern life experience.

All they could do now was wait to see how the world reacted. To help things along, his public relations team was sending out the link to the online version of the documentary to the media and to every high ranking member of the government from the president to the head of the ATF to the judge who had presided over the case.

It was a waiting game now as they watched to see the impact from the bomb TB had dropped and hope that would be enough to get some justice for Jax.

"

_**Author's Note: Jax gets out in the next chapter! And it isn't going to go the way you think it will.**_


	35. Chapter 35 Hell Breaks Loose

8

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 35 Hell Breaks Loose**

"

_**Author's Note: As promised, Jax is finally out of prison. Expect the fireworks between Ava and Jax to build over time. At first, he will try to find a way to get along with her. There will be a big explosion between them. I've actually got it all outlined.**_

"

TB was a big fan of English writer P.G. Wodehouse. He'd given Jax a big fat book with several Wodehouse novels in it featuring Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. He was reading one of them chuckling over the hapless Bertie's adventures when he got the news only he didn't know it was the news he'd been hoping for.

Doyle the guard who saved his life had simply come to his cell and told him he had ten minutes to pack up. Inmates got moved around. That wasn't unusual. Doyle left without explanation, but guards didn't owe inmates explanations.

Jax had a clear plastic TV and radio, a few books and letters and not much else in the way of possessions. He packed up all his stuff with five minutes to spare. He would be sorry to leave this cell. There was a tiny window with a view of the prison yard and sky. He'd spent a lot of time looking out his little window wondering if he would ever get out.

When Doyle opened the door, he was still trying to appear stern, but Jax noticed he seemed to be trying hard not to smile.

"You're out," he said whispering. "Pretend you don't know."

"Thanks, bro."

Jax liked Doyle. He was a young guy with a wife and daughter. At night when Jax couldn't sleep, they would talk. His daughter needed medical treatment his insurance wouldn't pay for and he couldn't afford. Jax swore to himself that he would use $20,000 of the money that Ava had given him to help the man's daughter get her needed medical treatment with some money left over for a little family vacation if that's what they wanted. He was a decent guy who saved his life. A lot of guards wouldn't have saved him. Inmates were less than human to most guards.

Jax got the best break of his life and he wanted to help him out. He'd ask TB's help to get the money to Doyle through some kind of medical grant or foundation. A guard couldn't take money from an ex-inmate. He would never know the money came from him, but that wasn't the point. His goal was to help this man and his kid.

He went through the processing like it was all a dream. All he could think about was that TB's plan had actually worked far quicker than he would have ever thought possible. He watched the final cut of the documentary on his prison TV. He'd come off looking like a saint when it was all done. It was amazing what money could do.

He knew from his attorneys that there was a flurry of hearings, but he hadn't wanted to get his hopes up. Instead, he chose not to attend the hearings. It didn't matter whether he was there or not. There was no jury to try to convince of his innocence.

He had heard from TB and his mother that the public was furious over his conviction. After the documentary aired the second time, the governor of California called the President. The United States Attorney General had demanded a briefing. The head of the ATF had put Stahl and Kohn on administrative leave until an investigation into their conduct could be made. The federal prosecutor was also on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct during Jax's trial.

The trial judge Amos Burke summoned the new federal prosecutor and Jax's new team of attorneys into court and given the prosecutor forty-eight hours to show why Jax shouldn't be released and the verdict in his trial vacated. Still, Jax hadn't dared hope that somehow this would lead to his freedom. He figured the government would come up with something to keep him locked up.

That had happened three days ago. Jax's attorneys told him they were hopeful that he was going to get out very soon. His attorneys told him things were in motion after the hearing with the judge. The papers he was given as he left prison told him that the verdict had been vacated by the judge in an agreement with both the prosecutor and his attorneys.

He was shocked that the prosecutor had actually stood up and done the right thing by him by admitting that he should never have been prosecuted and in the interest of justice, he recommended that Jax be released from prison. The verdict would be removed from his record and he would no longer be a convicted felon. Just like that. Magic.

The guys were waiting for him at the gates on their bikes when he got out. He wasn't strong enough yet to ride, but his bike was there on a flatbed. He would ride it into town on his bike. He was strong enough to manage five or six miles.

There were hugs, back slapping and he was given his precious cut. When he put it on, he actually had tears in his eyes. That was one sweet moment.

He climbed into the flatbed with Piney for the trip back to Charming. When they got back to the clubhouse, it looked like the whole town had turned out to greet him. Residents lined the streets waving at him as he rode past on his bike. He'd underestimated the impact of TB's documentary. He was returning a conquering hero.

At the clubhouse, the friends of the club and the crow-eaters packed the clubhouse. Gemma and TB were both there. He gave TB the biggest bear hug. TB looked a little startled before laughing and hugging him back. He owed that man years of his life. His money, power and intelligence had gotten him out of prison. Without him, he would have easily spent another four or five years in prison as his case slowly made its way through all the legal hoops and that's assuming he lived. The way things were going in prison, he might not have lived four or five more years.

Gemma had tears in her eyes as she hugged him fiercely. She'd then surprised TB with a hug as she thanked him for getting Jax out of prison.

For some reason, TB didn't seem to be keeping Ava informed of what was going on with his case. He explained that she was on a spa retreat and needed to recharge after going through the trauma of his hospitalization. Jax hadn't heard from her since she'd gone on her spa vacation.

He suspected that TB was deliberately keeping her in the dark for his own reasons. He didn't know what was going on between father and daughter, but he was focused on getting out of prison. There would be plenty of time for family drama and Ava drama when she returned.

There was a tame party in the clubhouse. He was a married man so there were no strippers even after TB left for the Castle. It didn't matter about the strippers or that Ava wasn't there. He could have a beer, smoke a joint and shower whenever he wanted.

He hadn't made any plans for the day he got out. He was a little superstitious and was afraid he might jinx things if he started planning for this day. That night he slept in the bed in the clubhouse while his brothers were passed out under and over crow-eaters. He was faithful to Ava because he'd promised her father. Otherwise, he would have taken three crow-eaters into his room and started to make up for lost time.

Tomorrow, Ava was returning and TB had invited him to stay in Ava's room until they figured out where they were going to live. He'd even invited them to live with him. He had been forced to sell his house and its contents to help pay for his defense. He could live with Gemma and Clay which would probably be worse than living with Ava and TB. Lucky he had all that money Ava had given him for marrying her to use to find them a place to live. They could start looking for a place in the next day or so.

"*******

Ava's spa retreat kept her and its guests out of touch with the world as part of the experience. Ava never watched the news or read it on her phone. It was too depressing, so she was completely unaware of the sensation Jax had made with the documentary. And she was completely unaware of her husband's release from prison.

She slept on the plane and watched a movie on her iPad. She had to change planes in Atlanta and got stuck there for almost four hours for various reasons from waiting for a part for the plane to waiting for more parts for the plane. She hated when that happened. It always made her feel like the plane was going to fall apart in the air and crash.

She thought she might be losing her mind because as she passed one of the TV sets in the waiting area she thought she saw Jax and heard the newscaster say his name. That had been one of the many nice things about her stay at the spa retreat, she could forget for a short time that she was married to a convict. It had been like Heaven to talk to people and pretend she was the same Ava that had stayed at the retreat four previous times. She made no mention of her marriage. It wasn't worth mentioning and she hadn't wanted to think about it or Jax. She'd even taken off her wedding ring while she was at the spa.

It was late when she finally got back to Charming. She left her bag in the downstairs entryway. Jeeves would go through it and take care of getting her clothes laundered and then returned to her room. She brought her carry on bag with her make-up and other essentials up to her room.

That was strange. She left her door closed so that wasn't unusual, but the light was on and she could hear the television set. Maybe the maid had been watching it when she was cleaning her room. Still, she should have turned it off. Ava frowned wondering if this could be a burglar, but a robber wouldn't have stuck around. She decided the TV had probably been left on by mistake, but to be careful, she was prepared to run if there was someone in her room.

She flung open the door and saw Jax in her bed under the covers watching her TV.

"What the hell!" Ava exclaimed. "I can't believe you escaped from prison. You better leave now. This will be one of the first places they'll look and I'm not hiding you."

"I didn't escape, darlin'," Jax drawled. "I'm out of prison for good. I'm a free man."

Ava looked at him and thought she was going to pass out. This must be some kind of nightmare. This could not be reality.

"

_**Author's Note: This is not legally accurate. In real life, it would take much longer to get someone out of prison, but this is a modern fairytale, so this is a little modern legal magic. **_

_**Ava's dad deliberately wanted to blindside her with Jax's getting out. Father and daughter have a complicated relationship.**_


	36. Chapter 36 Suckiness of Reality

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 36 The Suckiness of Reality**

"

Ava walked into her bedroom, tossed her carry on bag and her shoulder bag into a chair near her bed all while keeping a wary eye on Jax.

"Does my father know you're here and in my room?"

"Of course. He got me out of prison. He's invited us to stay with him until we find a place of our own."

Hallmark heroines don't swear, but Ava wasn't feeling like a Hallmark heroine. She felt like a heroine in a horror movie now. Leave it to her fucking father, she thought, to get Mr. Toxic Masculinity out of prison. That man was dangerous now that he was healthy again. He needed to be caged and not let loose in her bedroom. She remembered back to the good old days when he was chained. She longed for the safety of those days.

"How the hell did he do that?" Ava demanded.

"You really don't know anything?"

"I do. I'm just asking the question for the hell of it," Ava snapped.

Jax smiled. He liked a feisty girl. Made the sex that much sweeter.

"He believed me when I told him I was set up. He hired investigators and lawyers and put together a documentary that was shown on TV. One thing led to another and the judge ruled I was wrongly convicted. The conviction was thrown out."

"You're just out until you get tried again."

"No, I'm out for good. The judge found the charges were false and the two ATF agents are on video talking about how they set me up. You can watch the documentary online."

Ava looked at him and her lips tightened. Her son of a bitch of a father deliberately set her up by not telling her he was working to get Jax out of prison. She should have known when he gave her the spa resort trip that he was up to something. He wanted her to get blindsided with Jax getting out of jail. If her flight hadn't gotten delayed so many times, he would have been on hand to see her face when she got the surprise of her life.

She had no doubt that he suspected she'd married Jax strictly to fulfill the terms of his will. He was going along with her charade. He'd gotten Jax out of prison just to screw her over. If she had enough money to hire a hitman, she might give it some thought.

There was so much to think about and she was tired. She could think later. Her first step was getting Jax the hell out of her room.

"I'm exhausted," she said. "I had a terrible day traveling. I just want to take a shower and go to bed."

He looked her up and down and liked what he saw. Ava was a hot woman and she'd feel just fine under him. He smiled and stroked his moustache.

"Fine with me. Do you sleep naked?"

Ava thought she might have thrown up a little in her mouth. At least he was wearing a T-shirt. She hoped like hell he was wearing pajama bottoms under the sheet.

"There's a guest room next door."

"I'm not a guest," Jax drawled. He was enjoying this. "I'm your husband."

"And there's a guest bedroom next door," Ava repeated.

"I'm sleeping here with my wife."

She was sure when he'd said the word "wife" she'd thrown up in her mouth then. She'd never wanted to be a wife especially not to a man who was oozing Toxic Masculinity all the time.

"I sleep alone," Ava said. "Go sleep in the guest room and we'll talk in the morning."

"I'm not sleeping in the guest room," Jax said chuckling at the idea. "Now, you could sleep there, but your father will find out. He's a smart guy. He might begin to think we don't have a real marriage."

Ava grabbed her carry on bag, went into the bathroom, closed and locked the door. She wasn't sure who she hated more at that moment Jax or her father.

"

_**Author's Note: This isn't going to be one of these stories where they suddenly get together. It's a roller coaster sort of story where you may like one and not the other and then that shifts with the plot and things that happen.**_

_**Poor Ava. All she wants is an antiseptic guy from a Hallmark movie and she gets Mr. Toxic Masculinity.**_

**Future Events: A Hawaiian honeymoon, living with her dad, meals with Gemma and moving into their first house together. And it's all going to go wrong.**


	37. Chapter 37 First Night

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 37 First Night Together**

"

_**Warning: This chapter is very politically incorrect. Jax reveals some attitudes that are true to who he is.**_

_**"**_

Jax stared at the ceiling. He'd had some hope, not a lot, but some, that Ava would have sex with him tonight. He didn't understand why she wasn't eager to have sex with him. In his entire life, he'd never encountered a woman who didn't want to go for a ride on him. Even lesbians wanted to try him out. They were just women who hadn't been with the right man. Once they got some of his loving, it fixed them right up.

When he'd been in Sturgis a couple of years ago (famous motorcycle rally held annually in August in South Dakota), he'd had a threesome with two lesbians. They both found sex with him to be a revelation. The next year, both girls were biker old ladies and no longer gay. They had both thanked him when they saw him again.

Another time in Sturgis, he'd been at a bar where he met this crew cut headed lesbian. There wasn't much feminine about her. He started flirting with her. It might have been for the first time in her life. Sometimes he liked to do a little charity work and take a less attractive girl to bed and he liked the challenge of seducing a lesbian.

They'd spent two nights together and he'd straightened her right out too. She still liked an occasional hook-up with a girl, but she let her hair grow and still came to Sturgis every year though instead of working security, she worked as a dancer.

He wasn't getting a gay vibe from Ava, but you just never know about things. If she needed straightening out, he definitely had the tool for the job. He smiled to himself. There was no doubt in his mind that Ava was going to have sex with him. They were married. It was her duty as his wife.

Ava still hadn't shaken off the shock of having an unchained Jax Teller in her bedroom. Her father's working behind her back to get Jax out of prison didn't surprise her. He was always doing sneaky things like that. It's how he did the move to Charming. One day, he told her they were moving. She had no say in anything to do with the move. If she hadn't wanted to move, she always had the option of moving out and living on her own—only she had no way to pay for rent, food and everything else that came with living on her own.

There was no one in her life that she trusted. Her friends really weren't her friends. They were people she hung around with and not the people you could turn to in a crisis. She didn't even tell them she had gotten married. She was completely on her own, married to an ex-convict with dangerous levels of testosterone and with a father that enjoyed springing unpleasant and horrible surprises on her.

She took a quick shower and got ready for bed. She pulled on leggings and a long matching T-shirt done in a big red rose print. She only bothered with wearing nice pajamas or a nightgown when she had company. Jax didn't qualify as that. He wasn't in her bed because she wanted him there. He was in bed because he refused to leave.

Ava opened the door and saw Jax was still in her bed. It had been too much to hope for that he'd decided to do the decent thing and sleep in the room next door.

"You can at least sleep in the chairs tonight," Ava said standing over him.

"You can sleep in the chair. I'm sleeping in the bed," Jax said.

Ava was too tired to argue. She needed sleep. She had a lot of thinking ahead of her and needed a fully functioning brain. There had to be some way to get rid of Jax and stay on the good side of her father.

"Fine," Ava said tersely getting into the king size bed. "Don't try anything or I will shoot you or pepper spray you. My choice," she said as she pulled open her nightstand drawer, reached under her vibrator for her gun and pepper spray. She placed them on her nightstand.

Jax was taken by surprise. He knew she wasn't happy to see him but she was taking things to the extreme.

"You think I'm going to rape you?"

"I don't know you," Ava said defensively.

"I would never force a woman to have sex with me."

"Good because I'm never going to have sex with you."

Jax turned out the light on his side of the bed surprised by this turn of events. He figured Ava might need a little time—maybe a day or two to get to know him before having sex with him. Some girls needed a little time. He was OK with that, but Ava saying she was never going to have sex with him was just ridiculous.

He started thing again that Ava might be gay. That was the only reason he could think of for her refusing to ever have sex with him. He was Jax Teller. Women found him sexy as hell and they were all eager to have sex with him. What was wrong with Ava?

He never imagined that his wife would be harder to seduce than a lesbian with a crew cut.

"

_**Jax's sex troubles are even worse in Quarantine & Love: Jax & the Romance Writer. Sex with Tessa goes wrong in an epic way. I'm in final chapters of it.**_


	38. Chapter 38 Dodging a Bullet

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 38 Dodging a Bullet **

"

Ellie Lowen wasn't surprised when she was notified that she was being disbarred. It wasn't permanent. She could apply for reinstatement in two years if she jumped through a bunch of hoops.

It wasn't fair. Doctors killed people everyday with their negligence and they didn't lose their medical licenses because other doctors covered up for them. That was the problem with attorneys—they ratted on each other. She'd never killed anyone with her legal skills and yet she was the one who couldn't make a living as an attorney for two years.

If she'd been a little smarter, she would have been a doctor. She never would have had to worry about colleagues ratting her out then. She'd read an article about some neurosurgeon in Dallas who left patients paralyzed, dead and in permanent pain due to his poor surgical skills. The guy had even shown up for surgeries dirty and coked up and still no one stopped him from operating. Attorneys should be more like doctors.

When an attorney screws up, the client loses the case or maybe the attorney skims a little money from the client. Hours get billed that weren't worked. It was all part of being an attorney. If every attorney who billed for hours that weren't worked got disbarred, there wouldn't be any attorneys left.

Rosen had dissolved their partnership, so she couldn't even go and help out in the office. Fortunately, she'd stolen a lot of money from clients so she would be able to weather this downturn in her career.

After she'd finished watching the documentary on Jax's wrongful imprisonment, she felt like she'd dodged a bullet. The documentary had focused on the corrupt ATF agents and the prosecutor. She'd been left out. That had to be a good sign. That had to mean that Jax hadn't figured out she'd charged him for a defense and investigative services that she hadn't provided.

When Jax told her that he was innocent and been framed by the ATF agents, she hadn't paid much attention. She'd been a criminal defense attorney for too long to believe in her client's innocence. She also knew the MC too well to believe they were innocent of anything. Jax was guilty and there hadn't been any point in putting on a real defense. And then there was Clay offering her even more money to overbill the MC and throw the case. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The outcome for Jax whether or not she had provided him an adequate defense wouldn't have been any different. He didn't have the hundreds of thousands of dollars Ava's father poured into investigating the ATF agents and prosecutor.

There was dirt on her if TB had sent his team after her, but since there was only an occasional reference to her and nothing had been said about her providing an inadequate defense for Jax, she figured that meant she'd dodged a bullet. TB would focus his attention on the ATF and the department of justice for future lawsuits and she would be kept out of it.

It looked like she was going to get away with screwing up Jax's defense. Good new for her and Clay.

She heard the sound of a motorcycle. Her heart beat faster. Maybe Clay was dropping by.

No, it wasn't Clay. It was Jax with his bride. This was not going to be good. She went to her desk drawer, slipped a .38 into the waistband of her khakis and pulled her shirt out to conceal it. Now she was ready for anything.

"

_**Author's Note: The neurosurgeon Lowen mentions is actually based on a true story with a few small embellishments. He was referred to as Dr. Death. He practiced in Dallas, Texas. There are several articles online about Dr. Death and how he was finally stopped. **_

_**Dr. Death attracted patients with a slick marketing campaign, so you have to be careful that the doctor or surgeon you're going to is more than just a marketing product.**_


	39. Chapter 39 Lowen Threats

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 39 Lowen Threats**

"

Ava wasn't a morning person. This was especially true when there was an unwanted man in her bed. She'd hoped like hell that when she opened her eyes that morning she would be alone, Jax would still be in prison and last night had just been some strange nightmare. It was foolish and unrealistic and she hadn't really expected it to work.

Jax suggested giving her a tour of the city on his bike. She'd liked riding on a bike the night she'd gone to the bikers' clubhouse and invited them back to the house. She'd agreed because riding on his bike might be fun and she didn't have anything better to do. There weren't any clubs, decent shopping or places to go in this dull hateful town.

She hoped that as they rode around Charming, she would suddenly come up with a solution to her marriage problem. If only Jax could go back to prison, everything would be perfect. She never believed he was going to get out before the three years was up or she wouldn't have married him. Why didn't she just marry a serial killer or someone on Death Row? Those guys weren't going to get out early. Live and learn.

Jax drove up to a small strip mall. A man was scraping the lettering off a window of a law office.

"Wait here," Jax said to Ava.

She looked at him, her lips twisted in a mocking smile.

"What cave did you crawl out of? No one tells me what to do," she said swinging her legs off the bike and standing up.

"You're my old lady and I expect you to obey me."

"Never going to happen," Ava said laughing in his face. "I do as I damned well please."

Jax frowned at her, the muscles in his jaw clenched. In the MC world, old ladies were expected to do as they were told. If an old lady stepped out of line, her old man was expected to do whatever it takes to get her back in line even if that meant physical force. Ava needed to learn her place. Unfortunately he promised her father that he wouldn't harm Ava. This severely limited his options.

Jax ignored her and walked into the law offices with Ava trailing him.

"Jax, glad to see you," Tom Rosen said. "Congratulations on getting out of prison."

"Thanks. I'm looking for your partner."

"Not my partner. I dissolved the partnership. I'm getting my windows redone. She's not going to be practicing law much longer. She's about to get disbarred."

"Couldn't happen to a more deserving person."

"Yeah, live and learn. I should have caught on to her years ago."

Jax didn't believe Rosen didn't know what his partner was up to. There was just too much heat around Lowen so Rosen had to cut her loose to save his law practice.

"Thanks for the info," Jax said.

"Jax that was really an excellent documentary on you."

"Yeah, I'm practically a saint now."

"If you or the Sons need any legal assistance, I'll discount my rate significantly to make things up to the MC."

"Yeah, that will make up for the months I spent in prison," Jax said sarcastically.

He and Ava left.

"Where are we going to next?"

"I want to find Lowen."

"Just call her."

"She isn't going to want to talk to me. That's why we're going by her house to see if she's there."

"What are you going to do if you find her?"

"Give her a stern talking to," Jax said facetiously.

She climbed on the back of his bike and put her arms around him. She could feel the ripple of muscles under his T-shirt. It didn't do anything for her. He was too tall and his body too powerful for her tastes. She preferred guys just a couple of inches taller than her with lanky muscle free bodies.

When they got to Lowen's small house, Jax got off his bike. He didn't bother telling Ava to stay with the bike.

Jax left his black leather gloves on when he pounded on Lowen't door.

"I know you're in there," Jax said.

Lowen opened the door.

"Jax, this is a surprise," she said opening the door only a few inches.

He pushed the door open shoving her back in the process. Ava followed him into the house.

"Glad you got out," she said trying hard to sound like she meant what she said.

"No thanks to you."

"Jax, you know I did my best for you," she said.

Ava walked around the small living room and stopped standing behind and a little to the left of Lowen. She noticed the gun bulge in the waistband of Lowen's pants.

Ava mouthed the words "she's got a gun" to Jax so he would know to be careful. To make sure he got her point, she pointed at Lowen and made a gun with her hand. Jax gave her a slight nod.

"No, I don't know that. I think you threw my case, overbilled my MC for legal services and wanted me to rot in prison. Who paid you off?"

Jax was guessing about someone paying Lowen off but by the frightened expression on Lowen's face, he knew he'd guessed right.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Jax, I'm a lawyer in Charming. You had to know you weren't getting a top criminal defense attorney."

Jax's face flushed with fury.

"I thought I was getting someone competent and not someone who had taken a pay off. I sold everything I had for my defense and you told me there hadn't been enough money to hire an investigator to look into the two dirty ATF agents. You lost my case deliberately and stole from me by billing for hours you didn't work."

"I'd never do that."

Jax crossed over to where Lowen was standing and shoved her so hard against the wall that she bounced. She reached behind her into the waistband of her pants and took the gun. Before she could raise it, Jax caught her wrist, twisted the gun out of her hand and kicked it away.

He pinned her against the wall holding her by the shoulders.

"Who paid you off?" he hissed the question in her face.

"No one."

"Is it the same person who tried to kill me in prison and the hospital?"

Jax was taking another shot in the dark and by the stunned expression on Lowen's face, he knew that he'd guessed right.

"I don't know anything," Lowen protested.

"I _will_ find out," he growled, his face two inches from hers. "The only reason I'm not beating the answer out of you now is I promised I'd let TB handle fucking you over using the law. If it's too hard to do it his way, one night I'll drop by alone and I'll get the answer out of you no matter what I have to do to you to get it. You'll be lucky if you only end up disbarred and in prison."

Ava looked on in horror as Jax threatened Lowen. She'd been glaring at Lowen because she believed Lowen should have warned her that Jax could get out of prison. Now, Ava was scared for her.

Jax's toxic masculinity was on full display and Ava didn't like it one bit. There was no doubt in Ava's mind that Jax would carry out his threat to harm Lowen if he couldn't get the information out of her.

This whole confrontation was outside anything Ava had ever seen in her life. The men in Hallmark movies didn't behave the way Jax behaved. He was so uncivilized.

"Jax, I think we should leave," Ava said.

"You think about what I told you," Jax said to Lowen his face still inches from hers and his hands gripping her shoulders pinning her to the wall. "Maybe I'll even cut you a break if you tell me what I want to know."

Jax spit in Lowen's face. It was the ultimate sign of disrespect in the MC culture.

"Let's go," Jax said to Ava.

As Ava followed Jax out of the house, she saw Lowen's pale panic stricken face. Ava realized that Lowen had the information that Jax wanted. That's why Lowen was so scared.


	40. Chapter 40 Lunch with Mom

6

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 40 Lunch with Mom**

"

Ava thought about the scene she had just witnessed. She was shocked that Jax would treat a woman that way. He even spit in her face.

She waited until he had his helmet on.

"You were just threatening Lowen, right? You wouldn't really hurt her."

Jax turned to face her.

"I was serious."

"She's a woman. Men aren't supposed to treat women like that. You spit in her face."

"What did you want me to do?" Jax demanded sharply. "I sold just about everything I owned to help pay for my defense. Your father's research shows that she could not have worked all the hours that she billed me for which means she stole from me. I also think she knows who is behind the attempts on my life."

"You could just make her do a deposition. She would have to tell you the truth then," Ava suggested. TB talked about his cases a lot over dinner. Ava had picked up a lot of information over the years.

"And she would lie just like she did today. What would you do if someone took all your money and got you looked up for 30 years?"

Jax's face was flushed with anger and his eyes flashed with blue fire. Ava wished that Jax was chained up. She wondered if he could be a danger to her.

"I don't know, but violence isn't the answer. That's the toxic male in you speaking."

"You need to grow up. Life isn't filled with polite people asking polite questions and getting truthful polite answers. Lowen isn't going to tell me what I need to know unless she knows what the consequences are for not telling me. I don't care what I have to do to get the truth out of her."

"She's a woman," Ava said. "You can't beat up on a woman."

Jax shook his head cursing under his breath.

"Isn't equal rights about treating people equally? That's what I'm doing with Lowen. I'm treating her the same way I would if she were a man. No, that's not true. If she were a man, I'd have beaten the information out of her already. If TB doesn't make some progress, I _will_ visit Lowen and force her to tell me what I want to know."

Ava just figured out that if Jax hurt Lowen he would go to prison for assault and once again, he would be behind bars. It was the best solution to the mess she found herself in. Suddenly, the overcast day seemed brighter.

They dropped by Sandwich A Lot, the best sandwich shop in town where Jax had called in an order. The MC had a usual order the sandwich shop kept on file. Jax had added a combo sandwich of turkey, ham and roast beef for Ava. He put the two large bags of sandwiches in his bike's saddle bags and they headed off to TM.

Jax was immediately swarmed by the guys at TM when he put the bags of sandwiches on the picnic table. He grab a smaller bag inside one of the larger bags.

"This is for you and Gemma," Jax said handing her the small bag. "I thought you would prefer eating in the TM office with Gemma. Give you a chance to get to know each other."

"OK. I'm more of an inside person than an outside person."

"I get that."

Jax followed her into TM's offices.

Gemma got up from behind her desk in the office and hugged and kissed Jax like she hadn't seen him in years. Ava looked on at this lavish display of affection with surprise. She couldn't remember the last time her father had hugged her. Maybe he had never hugged her. Even after her mother died, he hadn't hugged her.

"I thought you two would be more comfortable eating in the office," Jax said to Gemma. "After lunch, we'll head back to your father's. I need to rest."

"You shouldn't be on the bike now anyway," Gemma scolded. "Imagine what would happen to you if you went down."

Jax kissed his mother on the cheek and left.

Ava handed Gemma the sandwich with her name on it's white paper wrapper. Gemma ate at her desk. Eva ate her sandwich several yards away on the sofa.

"Were you surprised about Jax getting out of prison?" Gemma asked.

"It was a surprise. I'd been on a spa retreat, so I had no idea what was going on."

"TB didn't tell you he was working on getting Jax out of jail?"

"Did he tell you what he was doing?" Ava asked.

"No," Gemma admitted.

"That's my father. He likes to surprise people. The surprises are usually unpleasant."

"Discovering that Jax was released from jail must have been such a _pleasant _surprise for you," Gemma said in a voice packed with fake sweetness.

Ava wasn't taken in by Gemma's tone of voice. She was a veteran of the fake nice act. All her friends had it perfected. She knew better than to believe that Gemma was suddenly going to be nice to her. She would be careful and wait for Gemma's verbal knife because it had to be coming.

"I'm not sure I'd use the word pleasant. It was more of a shocking surprise."

"Now you can begin your married life together. I know Jax is staying for a few days with your father, but you and Jax are welcome to come live with Clay and me. Sooner or later, you'll want your own place, but you should think about coming to stay with Clay and me for a couple of weeks until you decide what you want to do."

It just goes to show you that when you think things have gotten as bad as they can get, there's always something worse lurking around the corner. Living with Gemma and Clay would be even worse than sharing her bedroom with Jax. There was no way in hell she would agree to live with Gemma.

"Thanks for the invitation," Ava said calmly, hiding how revolted she was at the idea of living with Gemma and Clay.

The more Gemma saw of Ava, the more she hated her. True her father had gotten Jax out of prison, so she was grateful to him. As far as his daughter went, she was a stuck up little bitch and now that Jax was out of prison, she didn't have to be nice to her anymore.

"You know your marriage will never last," Gemma said.

"Most marriages don't according to statistics."

"You think you can beat those statistics and live happily ever after."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Ava said cheerfully.

Gemma was stunned by Ava's attitude. When she told Ava that her marriage would never last, she expected Ava to get upset. Instead, she'd shrugged it off. She decided to try again to hurt Ava.

"You know Jax doesn't love you."

Ava put down her sandwich and wiped her fingers on a napkin before putting a dramatic hand over her heart.

"Oh, no! How will I ever live if he doesn't love me?" Ava said mockingly. "Oh, yeah, I remember now. I don't love him either. Gemma you can take all the shots at me that you want, but you can't hurt me. I'm barb proof."

That little bitch should have been in tears by now. Gemma had never met someone like Ava. She was just cold and hateful.

"Maybe you and Jax ought to just get divorced now."

"OK, Gemma, stay out of my business and my marriage. I know exactly who you are. You will never approve of any girl that gets with Jax because you want to be the only woman he loves. It's pretty sick."

"You bitch," Gemma said. She put her sandwich down and stood up.

Ava had a great retort on the tip of her tongue. It was really over the line, but when she thought of a great response, it was hard for her to not use it. The temptation to say it was just too much for Ava.

"You were practically making out with Jax when you saw him. I think I even saw a little tongue in one of those mouth kisses. Definite incest vibes. You ever wonder what it would be like to have sex with Jax?"

That was it for Gemma. She came around the desk and was going to smack Ava. Ava realized that Gemma was going to get physical. She grabbed her purse and was going to run from the office when Jax flung open the door.

"You ready to go?" he asked Ava.

"Yes. I had such a nice talk with your mother. Thanks Gemma," Ava said in her sweetest voice.

Gemma glared at Ava. Ava wrapped up her sandwich and tucked it into her bag. It was delicious. She'd enjoy it later.

As they left, Ava turned her head and saw Gemma mouth the word "bitch". She reached up like she was going to touch her hair and flipped her off.

Jax had his back turned and had no idea of the drama going on behind his back.

"

**Next Chapter: Dinner with Dad**

"

_**Author's Note: Ava finally says what some of us have been thinking about the Gemma/Jax relationship. Sandwich A Lot also appears in Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run. **_


	41. Chapter 41 Ava's Plan

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 41 Ava's Plan**

"

Jax's face was gray with exhaustion. Riding all over town with Ava was just too much for him in is current physical condition. He should have known better.

"I'm going up to your room and get some sleep."

"You do look pale," Ava said sweetly. She gently brushed his cheek with the tips of her fingers.

"Expressing concern for me? Is this a new version of you?" Jax asked skeptically. Any other woman and he would have believed her concern for him was real. Not Ava. She had to be up to something.

"I'm not heartless. I was thinking that you aren't going to be able to get a proper rest in my bedroom. I watch TV and listen to music. I'm kind of loud. Why don't you take a nap in the guest bedroom next door? You'll get a much better nap. I'll wake you up in plenty of time for dinner."

Jax knew he would get a more restful nap alone, but he hated to let Ava have her way about anything. At the moment though, his desire for sleep outweighed his desire to fight with Ava.

"I'll take a nap in the guest bedroom, but I won't be sleeping in it tonight. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Jax," she said demurely.

Ava wasn't used to having someone around her all the time. She thought it was because she'd been an only child so she was used to being alone. It didn't matter, she was just glad to be rid of Jax for an hour of two.

Once she'd gotten him to sleep in the guest room for a nap, it wouldn't take long to get him to sleep there permanently. Marriage might not be so bad if they each had their own room and lived with her father. All the cooking, cleaning and laundry would be done and her life wouldn't change that much. All she had to do was sell Jax on the idea. If it came down to it, she might be willing to have sex with him just not very often if he would agree to her suggested living arrangement. It would take some doing though because she sensed that he had a lot of pride and it wouldn't be easy to convince him to live with her father.

She knew there was no way in hell that she would ever agree to live with Gemma. Gemma would try to make her life a living hell because she hated her. That woman would never accept her son's wife or girlfriend. She'd meant it when she told Gemma she wanted to be the only woman in her son's heart. It was pretty sick. She wondered how much of a mommy's boy Jax was underneath that tough guy façade. She hated a mommy's boy.

As far as Lowen was concerned, there was no doubt in Ava's mind that Jax and her father would destroy her. Her father was ferocious in the courtroom. He would destroy Lowen's career.

Ava fell asleep watching a Hallmark romance movie. Jax woke her when he tapped lightly at her door. When he came into the room, his blonde hair was rumpled. Ava thought he actually looked attractive if she liked the muscled overly male type. She didn't of course. She liked slender modern men who weren't steeped in toxic masculinity.

She needed to wait for the perfect moment to suggest their living arrangements. She decided that wasn't the moment. Maybe after dinner when he was stuffed with delicious food.

"When do we have dinner?"

"We eat at 7 every night unless there's a schedule change. Alan is the chef. He makes lunch and dinner. Jeeves makes simple breakfasts, but I usually don't eat breakfast."

"You ever cook?" Jax asked.

"No. We've always had cooks. When the cook has days off, he leaves stuff in the fridge or freezer or we got out."

"You've never cooked?"

"No."

"I can cook a little. Scrambled eggs and toast."

This might have been a good time to mention how nice it would be if they lived with her father, but she let the opportunity pass. Wait for a couple of days when he had a chance to fall in love with Alan's cooking. Then she would bring it up.

"You're lucky I walked in on you and Gemma when I did," Jax said eyeing his wife. "I have a feeling there was about to be a fight."

Ava smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"She was just telling me that you aren't in love with me. She thought that would hurt my feelings," Ava said.

Jax chuckled.

"Any other woman, it would have hurt her feelings, but not my cold blooded wife."

"Come on Jax, don't act like that. You aren't in love with me. This is just a marriage of convenience. You got the best of the bargain because my father got you out of jail without you having to spend any of the money I gave you."

"I'm not sure I got the best of the bargain because now I have to spend almost three years with you."

Ava's blue-green eyes narrowed.

"Would you rather be in prison or married to me?"

There was a long pause.

"What?" Ava demanded.

"I'm thinking it over."

Ava gave Jax a playful shove.

"Bastard."

"I'd rather you spend three years in prison than you being out, but I'm working on the adjustment."

"Cheer up," he drawled. "maybe I'll do something to land me back inside."

"The sooner the better," Ava said.

"That's what I love about you, darlin'. You are so honest."

Jax had plans for Ava. He was going to crack that icy façade and make her burn for him, make her beg for him to make love to her and show her who the boss was in their relationship.

"Time for dinner with dad," Ava said. "I'm sure he'll be full of surprises."

"

_**Next: Dinner with Dad**_


	42. Chapter 42 Dinner with Dad

6

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 42 Dinner with Dad**

"

Jax wasn't sure what he was expecting dinner to be like. Maybe there would be a long table with TB at one end and Ava at the other like something he'd seen on TV with candles, lots of crystal goblets, china and sparkling silverware. The reality was more home style.

"When we eat together, we eat in the breakfast room or at the kitchen bar," Ava explained as they walked downstairs. "We usually only eat together on Sunday nights. My father eats in his room or office and I usually eat in my room kind of like hotel room service."

"Why don't you eat together more often?"

"You just might find out why tonight."

TB was waiting for them at a small oval table covered with a white table cloth and glasses of iced tea. Jax expected him to be dressed in a suit and tie, but he was wearing jeans and a golf shirt.

With the exception of Ava's room, all the rooms of the Castle were decorated in deep jewel tones that definitely went with the Castle gothic sort of look. Gemma would have loved it.

"Ava, I'm glad to see you finally got back from your trip. I'd really hoped to see you when you returned. I was looking forward to seeing your reaction when you discovered Jax was out of prison."

Ava had taken her usual seat next to her father. Jax took the seat next to Ava.

"I'm sure you did," Ava said coolly.

That was the moment when Jax was sure that Ava's father had deliberately not told his daughter about his efforts to get him out of prison because he wanted to blindside her. TB knew exactly why Ava had married him and getting Jax out of prison was less about righting the wrongs done to him by the justice system and more about watching Ava pay for figuring out a way around his will.

"Ava was pleasantly surprised," Jax added.

TB looked surprised.

"I don't know why you didn't tell me that you were helping Jax get out of prison. It would have been nice if you could have told me," Ava said. Her voice was cool but Jax could hear an undertone of anger and bitterness.

Her father smiled.

"I couldn't bear to see the disappointment on your face if I failed to free Jax. I had no idea that it would happen so quickly."

A small plump man in a chef's coat brought in plates of shrimp Caesar salad and spoke briefly. He asked Jax how he liked his steak cooked and nodded approvingly when Jax said he like his meat rare.

"Your father told me he was going to get me out of prison," Jax added trying to smooth over whatever was going on between father and daughter. "I was skeptical too. That's why I didn't mention it to you. I didn't want you to get your hopes up. It takes years to get through the court system, but that documentary he made worked like magic," Jax said.

"Have you seen the documentary?" TB asked his daughter.

"I didn't know about it until last night," she replied.

Jax wasn't used to this type of fighting. In his family, it was shouting, slamming doors and shoving. He'd been through a lot of it during his teen years after Gemma waited thirty seconds after his father was killed before marrying Clay.

Ava and her father fought more subtly. Their words were perfectly polite. It was that undercurrent and a coldness in their eyes when they spoke to each other. He preferred his fights loud.

The chef removed the salad plates and returned with perfectly prepared ribeye steaks, baked potatoes and orange glazed carrots. Jax was surprised that the food was simple and not fancy with a lot of French sauces. It was steakhouse perfect.

"What did you two do today?" TB asked.

Ava looked at Jax. He took that as his cue to reply.

"I took Ava around town on my bike. Showed her different places and then we had lunch at TM."

"I can't believe you went riding on a motorcycle," TB said.

"I enjoyed it."

"I know you two didn't get to have the wedding of your dreams. I'd love to throw a big fancy wedding for you."

"I'm sure you would," Ava said her voice frosty.

Her father would love nothing better than to humiliate her by throwing a big fancy wedding attended by all his rich friends so they could see that his daughter had married an ex-con. She was sure he was always telling them that she would never amount to much. If anyone found out that she'd had to pay Jax to marry her, her humiliation would be complete. Her life was a fucked up mess.

At least at that moment, she realized that she hated her father more than she hated Jax. Jax was at least being polite.

"Whatever Ava wants," Jax said.

"I don't want a wedding. I already had one," her voice was sullen. Her father had finally gotten through her icy façade. She was beginning to get angry.

"How about a honeymoon then? I was thinking about ten days in Hawaii and then a week in Louisiana. Remember, how we always used to talk about going back to Louisiana?"

"That was when my mother was alive."

"I know. Now, you and Jax can go together. Take one of those paddleboats up the river. Have you ever been to Hawaii or Louisiana, Jax?"

"No. I've never really traveled much except to places where my MC has a charter."

"A nice romantic honeymoon would really get your marriage off to a great start," her father said enthusiastically. "Jeeves made all the arrangements. You're flying out tomorrow. You'll leave at 2 to go to the airport. Pack light and buy whatever you need there."

This was typical of her father making these decisions without asking her. He couldn't be bothered to ask her if she wanted to go on a honeymoon or where she wanted to go. It was like him always moving them and decorating her bedroom without any input from her.

"I can't really work in my physical condition. It would be the perfect time to have a honeymoon," Jax said.

"You'll have a great time," her father added.

He liked the idea of going away with Ava. Maybe getting her away from her father and in a more relaxed environment would improve things between them. They needed to find some way to at least tolerate each other for the next three years.

Hawaii meant beaches and bikinis. In that kind of place, it wouldn't take long before he and Ava started having sex. He'd love to see Ava's hot body in a bikini and she'd never be able to resist him once she saw him in his swim trunks. Even in prison, he'd kept up with his workouts. That was part of the reason he was still alive and able to live through that attack in prison.

"Maybe even make it a babymoon," Jax joked.

Ava gave him a lethal look her eyes filled with hate.

"There's no way in hell that I'm ever having a baby."

Her attitude caught Jax off guard. He'd been joking and this sudden turn surprised him. He had no idea she hated kids, but he didn't really know her.

"I'd love to have a grandchild," her father said.

Ava turned her death stare on her father only this time her eyes were filled with even more hate.

"Why? You think you want to try being a grandfather since you were such a failure as a father."

"I gave you everything you wanted."

Jax knew this was going to lead to an explosion. This was a train wreck of a conversation. He had to admit watching Ava go from icy to white hot angry was sexy as hell. He liked women with some fire in them. There might be more fun being married to Ava than he thought.

"Did you ever come to a parent teacher conference?" she demanded.

"I always sent someone."

"Did you ever look at one of my report cards? Did you ever help me with my homework? Did you ever help me proofread one of my school reports?"

TB's lips compressed to a thin line.

"I gave you the help you needed to get those things done. You might remember that I was busy earning a living so you would have everything you needed in life."

"I needed a father. You were never a father to me. You couldn't even bother to come to me when my mother died. You sent your fucking assistant."

"Ava, watch your language," her father scolded.

"Now you're trying to be a father because you don't like my language. _Really?_ Where was all this tender concern when I called you to tell you mommy wouldn't wake up?"

"Ava, your mother was dead. There wasn't anything I could do about that and I thought my assistant would know more about how to deal with you."

"You only love money and your work. I would never have a baby for you to destroy with your coldness. Better plan on buying a grandchild because that's the only way you're ever getting one daddy dear."

Ava got up, threw her plate down on the table with a crash and stormed out of the room without looking at Jax.

"You see," TB said with a sigh, "that's the kind of behavior I need your help with."

That was the moment when Jax realized that just as TB hired nannies for Ava as a kid, he'd bought him to take care of her as an adult.


	43. Chapter 43 Same Old Fight

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 43 Same Old Fight**

"

Ava had been having this same fight with her father since she was fifteen and finally had even courage to speak her mind. She'd told him how awful he'd made her feel when she called to tell him her mommy was cold and wouldn't wake up. He'd calmly told her the same thing that he'd said tonight her mother was dead, he couldn't do anything about it and his assistant would do a better job talking care of her. She remembered that night only he'd said taking care of things. She hadn't even been a human to him just a thing that an assistant could handle for him.

Up to that point, she'd been a pretty good student and well behaved, but after that night, she just quit caring. Her father never gave her compliments or scolded her. She did as she pleased, but she'd been too sad over her mother's death and her father's indifference to get into too much trouble. Her depression kept her from stepping too far out of line.

Every so often, they would have this same fight over her mother's death. It never ended differently, but each time Ava hoped that he would finally say the words she wanted to hear that he was sorry for sending his assistant to take care of her and that he should have rushed to her immediately. Then he would say he didn't know about taking care of little girls and he was so afraid of screwing up, he got nannies to help him. He would finish by telling her how much he loved her and he wished he'd understood how much she needed to know that he loved her and was proud of her.

If her father could only say some of those words to her, their relationship would have a chance at growing and healing. Deep inside, she hoped that with Jax there, her father might have said the magic words that he loved her—not that he felt it but it would make him look good in front of Jax. It had been too much to wish for.

When her mother died, Jeeves had packed up her mother's stuff. She was with him and decided what to do with everything. She hadn't wanted to throw anything away so most of the things went into storage. Her father had plenty of properties so storing her mother's things was easy. Where it got hard were her mother's personal items and clothes.

Finally, Jeeves gently suggested putting everything in boxes and bringing them home. She could go through them and decide whenever she felt like it. There were twelve boxes. Each time they moved, those twelve boxes went with them. She would find some place in the house to make a secret room with the boxes and when she was upset, she would go into her secret room and stay there hiding until she felt better. She'd never gone through her mother's things. It still hurt too much.

She went downstairs into the basement to where she'd set up her secret lair a few months ago. It was in a corner of the basement near some other boxes. On the floor was the bedding that had been on her bed when she was a child. She propped herself up with pillows and took her cell phone out and played games on her phone for a few minutes before deciding to watch TV on her phone.

If Jax weren't in her room, she would have gone back to her room, but she didn't feel like facing him. There would probably be another fight and she wasn't up to it. She wished he would just go away. Maybe he could tell her father he'd just married her because he thought she could help him get out of prison and now that he was out, he wanted out of the marriage. Maybe her father would feel so sorry for her, he would tear up his will and give her a trust fund so she could move away from him and start her own life. Yeah and Santa Claus was real.

She fell asleep and didn't wake up until after seven. She hadn't meant to spend the whole night away, but it was better than sharing a bed with Jax. It wasn't as though he cared anyway.

After carefully folding her bedding, she left the basement and returned to her room. Jax was still asleep. She hadn't expected that he would have stayed up all night worrying about her.

"You're back," Jax said waking when he heard her open a drawer.

"We need to pack," she said.

"So you want to go to Hawaii and Louisiana?"

"It beats staying in Charming."

"Where the hell were you last night?" Jax asked with some anger in his voice.

"Don't worry, baby, I wasn't cheating on you," Ava said sarcastically.

"Wouldn't matter to me if you had."

"What a great husband you are! Thanks for caring."

Jax gave her a smirking smile that she wanted to slap off his face.

Ava turned her back and began to get some clothes together. She wondered if her marriage would survive the honeymoon.

"

_**Author's Note: Remember that Jax has never had a girlfriend. He knows about sex, but he doesn't understand girls and their thoughts and feelings. That's why he didn't seek out Ava and comfort her. He also doesn't love her. He isn't the sensitive evolved Jax in Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run.**_


	44. Chapter 44 Fight or Flight

2

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 44 Fight or Flight**

"

_**Author's Note: I hate when I make mistakes but despite all my hundreds of hours of viewing SOA, I mistook the first name for Lowen as Ellie and it is actually Ally. I'm making the change with this chapter and as time permits, I'll fix the previous chapters. Sorry. Wanted to be honest about my mistake and fix it.**_

_**Also if you notice a mistake or a continuity error, please let me know so I can it. It's surprising how easy it is to make mistakes about little things. There's a lot of remember with all the stories.**_

_**"**_

Ally Lowen was worried and it had nothing to do with losing her law license. She could apply in two years for reinstatement. She just hoped she'd be alive in two years. That prospect was looking less and less likely.

After Jax and his bitch bride paid her a visit, she had to face the fact there was no easy way out of this legal mess. She knew Jax well enough to know that he would be relentless in his quest to find out who paid her to screw up his defense.

He'd made it clear that if he couldn't turn some legal screw on her to get the name, he'd be willing to beat it out of her. He would only be patient for so long.

If she told Jax she'd worked with Clay to get him convicted, Clay would kill her. He would kill her to prevent him from telling Jax and he would kill her if she told Jax. Either way, it looked like she was going to get killed; it was only an issue of who and when.

There was another possibility—she could run. Sell or rent her house, take the cash she'd stolen from clients over the years and travel. After a couple of years, she could apply to get her law license reinstated and open another practice far from Charming. If she left town and kept her mouth shut, Clay wouldn't bother trying to find her. That wouldn't stop Jax and TB had the resources to find her. That wasn't going to work.

There was another solution. Murder. If she killed Clay, her problem with Clay was over, but Jax would still come after her legally and he might kill her. He was hot tempered. He could snap and kill her for what she'd done to him.

She could kill Jax. That would take care of her problem with Clay. If she did it cleanly leaving no clues behind, Unser and Hale would put it down to MC violence. Her problems would be over.

All she had to do now was plot the perfect murder and carry it out flawlessly. This time, she wouldn't pay someone to kill Jax. That had failed twice. This time, she would kill Jax herself.

The longer she waited, the more likely it was that Clay would kill her.

Kill or be killed. That was the basic fact of life. She was just going to have to kill Jax if she wanted to keep living.


	45. Chapter 45 Rock Star

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 45 Rock Star**

"

They rode in near silence to the airport in the back of Ava's father's Rolls. Jax decided he needed to change Ava's attitude and, over the course of their honeymoon, he would win her over. No woman had ever been able to resist him. She could try, but she'd fall for him like all the others. He just might need to work at it.

She looked good in a pair of green khaki pants that fit tight in all the right places and a V-necked crimson shirt that showed only a hint of cleavage. She'd put her hair in a ponytail and only wore a little mascara and lipstick. There was something about her that he found sexy as hell. Maybe it was her telling him "no" that had something to do with it.

He hadn't dressed up for the airport either. He wore jeans, a white T-shirt with "Sons" on it in blue and his cut. He wasn't about to leave it at home. He had earned that with blood.

He thought part of the problem with Ava was her bad relationship with her father. That might even be why she'd never been in a relationship for very long. He'd read some psych stuff while he'd been incarcerated.

"Look, I get that you have drama with your father. Who doesn't have family drama? You've met my mother, right?"

Ava turned her head to look at him.

"Of course I've met your mother."

"How would you like to deal with her?"

Ava thought about that for several moments. Gemma was pretty awful. Not as bad as her father, but still she was pretty horrible. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in a family with her father and his mother. Hell would get a whole new level.

"OK. I get it," she said.

"You want to get back at your father? Have a lot of fun. We're going on a great trip together. I can be a lot of fun."

"Don't try to have sex with me because I'm not going to have sex with you," she warned him.

Of all the women he'd seduced into bed, he never dreamed that the one woman who was actually supposed to sleep with him, his wife, was going to be the most difficult to seduce. He was up for the challenge. Chasing women never got old. That's what worried him. Spending three years without a variety of women was going to be hard.

As far as Ava went, she was definitely going to sleep with him a lot. His powers of seduction were legendary. She could say no now, but there would come a time when she would beg him for sex. They just weren't at that place yet, but they were absolutely going to get there because he was Jax Teller chick magnet.

Building up some sexual tension might even make the sex better. The most sexual tension he'd ever had with a woman lasted as long as it took him to finish his beer. Waiting a little for Ava was a new experience.

"Deal," Jax said.

Her father was probably counting on her to have a terrible time with Jax. Having a good time would be a way of getting back at him plus she loved Hawaii and had wanted to go back to Louisiana since the time she'd gone there with her parents and they had been a happy family. That was before her father had become addicted to money and her mother had gotten addicted to anything she could snort.

"It would also help if you could throttle back some of that toxic masculinity. You don't have to be so overbearingly macho all the time."

"How about you throttle back some of your bitchiness?" Jax asked. He kept his voice level and cordial. He didn't want to escalate this conversation into a fight.

"I'll be nicer."

Jax was surprised that she had agreed. That had to be a good sign that this honeymoon was going to be great. His optimism got him through prison. It would get him through his honeymoon with his less than enthusiastic bride.

Ava handled all the e ticket stuff on one of the many computer terminals. He had his duffel and she had her little turquoise carry-on bag on wheels so they didn't have to get in line to check baggage.

While they waited in the airport security line, Ava became aware that people seemed to be staring at them and whispering. People were strange especially people in Cali, but no one had ever acted like this around her before.

Once they were through security, Ava went to the ladies' room. She took her suitcase because she was afraid Jax would wander off, leave it and create a security incident. Even Ava feared homeland security.

At the moment looking in the mirror as she washed her hands, she was giving herself the usual pep talk about flying; planes hardly ever crash, the pilot and co-pilot weren't drunk or high, the plane was properly maintained by smart motivated mechanics and everything was going to be fine. Once she'd been so convinced that her flight number was unlucky, it had taken every ounce of self-control to keep from demanding they let her off the plane while the flight attendants were doing the safety drill. It had only been the fear of ending up on the no-fly list that kept her in her seat. Now, she didn't need self-control; she had Xanax.

It was time she lost some of her attitude. Having fun with Jax would be the perfect way to get back at her father. She imagined the surprise in his voice when she told him how much fun she and Jax were having together. Even better would be _if _Jax told him how much fun they were having. He wouldn't expect Jax to say that.

She finished in the bathroom and walked out into the waiting area. She looked around for Jax before finally spotting him standing in front of a bookstore surrounded by six women and a guy. He was grinning and they were taking pictures with him.

Son of a bitch. She'd married the rock star of the criminal justice world.

"

**Author's Note: Thanks to the readers who are seeing that Ava's a spoiled brat, but there's more to her than that. I'm having fun with the Jax Teller swagger. It's kind of hard to hate on him because he really is **_**almost**_** as irresistible and charming as he thinks he is.**

**I also finished my quarantine story about Jax, the romance writer and the sex accident that doesn't involve pregnancy. That would have been a better title.**


	46. Chapter 46 Old Lady Blues

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 46 Old Lady Blues**

"

Jax had received a warm welcome home from every Charming resident that crossed his path. In the few short days since his release he hadn't left Charming so he had no idea the documentary on his wrongful conviction had made him into a celebrity outside his small town.

It started with a woman in her early twenties with short dark hair asking him if he was the Jax Teller in the documentary. When he confirmed his identity, she immediately wanted to take a picture with him. The last pictures that had been taken of him were mug shots. This provided a refreshing change. Before she finished taking pictures with him, a teenaged girl came up to him with her brother also wanting a picture. The crowd just kept growing. Even after people took pictures, they lingered.

Everyone wanted him to know they were on his side and were glad that those that framed him were in trouble and hoped they went to jail. Jax agreed with that.

More people gathered once they heard that Jax from the documentary was at the airport. Even those that hadn't seen the documentary or knew who he was had to come and take a look at him because he'd been on TV. There's also not a lot to do at an airport.

All Ava could do was stare at the growing crowd around Jax. She could tell by the way he was talking to the girls that he was flirting with them. He was eating up the attention. His ego was enormous and this incident was going to make him even more overbearing and insufferable.

For the moment, all she could do was stand there watching the crowd grow. She had no idea what she should do. She could find a table and wait until his adoring public left or she could wade through the crowd and remind him that she existed.

She watched as girls began to kiss him on the cheek while taking a picture. He'd looked down the front of women's tops not even bothering to be subtle. He was the oinkiest of all pigs. Asshole.

She wasn't jealous at the way he would slide his arm around a girl for a picture. He could have sex with every girl in the airport on a table, on the floor or against the wall and she couldn't have cared less. He was having a good time soaking up the attention and that's what angered her.

A homeland security officer walked through the crowd to Jax. Ava expected the man to do his job and disburse the people. Instead, he wanted a picture with Jax. Now, this was why this country was going to hell. Homeland Security would rather take pictures than do their jobs. Ava's lips tightened as she watched the man joke with Jax.

To Ava's astonishment as soon as the security officer left, another took his place wanting a picture with Jax. Who was keeping the homeland secure while these assholes were taking selfies with Jax? They ought to be doing their jobs stealing toiletries out of suitcases and telling people they had too much liquid in their bags. She hated Homeland Security, but not as much as she hated Jax at that moment.

A couple of people were shooting video of Jax and his throng of admirers. What was wrong with people and their incessant need to record their lives? Ava just didn't get it.

It was time to wreck Jax's fun. She walked over to the crowd of more than a dozen men and women. As she tried to work her way towards Jax, people were telling her to wait her turn and complained about her pushing her way into the crowd.

Jax noticed Ava moving towards him. She stood out in a crowd with her height and her russet hair.

"Ava," he said. He reached out and pulled her through the crowd so she could stand by his side.

"Hey, everyone, I'd like you to meet my beautiful and charming old lady Ava _Teller_."

His eyes met hers and she knew that he was mocking her. He was always so damned sure of himself. It was one of the things she hated about him.

She stood there, frozen by his announcement. She wondered if their hotel room had a balcony and if she could shove him off it and sell it to the cops as an accident or suicide. It wouldn't work anyway; she wasn't strong enough. Damn.

"I didn't know you were married," a woman with long blonde hair said in a pouty voice.

"It didn't mention anything in the documentary," another woman complained.

"The documentary was just about my wrongful conviction. That's why she wasn't mentioned. Ava believed in me so much she married me while I was in prison," Jax said smiling at Ava. "She was a prison bride."

"Lucky me," Ava said. She had a bright fake smile on her face. "What woman doesn't dream of a prison wedding? It was just so romantic. The vending machines at the prison catered our reception."

"No wedding night though. I spent the night alone."

"I spent the night crying into my pillow wondering if Jax would ever be free," Ava said. Her voice had a mocking tone that was so subtle only someone who knew her would pick up on it.

"I was lucky that Ava's father believed in me as much as she did. He did what my attorney should have done at my trial and dug into the two corrupt ATF agents. It takes forever for a wrongful conviction to be overturned. Filming the documentary and getting my story out there was his way of trying to get me out as quickly as possible. It's thanks to him and my beautiful bride that I'm free."

"My father is very smart," Ava said.

"Ava and I are on our way to Hawaii for our honeymoon," Jax shared. "She's _really_ been looking forward to it," Jax said draping an arm around her and winking.

Ava could see the hungry looks the women were giving him. They found him sexy as hell. She didn't get it. How could they not see that he was oozing toxic masculinity?

He dropped his hand to her waist and stomach area.

"We're hoping to get pregnant right away," Jax said with a wide grin.

"Jax has always wanted to be a stay at home mom," Ava countered. She longed to slap that smile off his face.

"She's joking. She really wants nothing more than to be a stay at home wife and mother. She's an old fashioned girl."

Her appearance did nothing to deter from people coming up and wanting a picture with Jax. They simply asked her if she would step aside. The nightmare didn't end until it was time to board their plane.

Hawaii was going to be hell.


	47. Chapter 47 Flying to Hawaii

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 47 Flying to Hawaii**

"

Jax knew that the reactions from those watching the documentary on him was one of the reasons he wasn't fighting to stay alive in Kensington Palace right now. He had no problem taking pictures with people and talking to them. He was grateful to them; he was just surprised that so many people recognized him and wanted a picture with him.

He didn't understand yet that he was everyone's hero. He had been the victim of two out of control ATF agents and a corrupt prosecutor who together conspired and framed him for a crime he didn't commit. There was clear evidence of the corruption and collusion. No doubt about it.

There had been two attempts on his life both of which he heroically fought off including one in the hospital where he'd been taken to recover from the first attempt on his life. He had also survived a life threatening infection from the emergency surgery done to save his life. Even law enforcement had to publicly support his release from prison because he _was _innocent of the crime. His blonde good looks didn't hurt either.

He'd enjoyed trading barbs with Ava that only they understood had a double meaning, he was going to Hawaii and he wasn't in prison. Life was pretty damned good. He'd bring Ava around because no girl had ever been able to resist him. It was a fact.

They headed into the plane, found their seats in first class and he put their carry-on bags in the overhead bin above their seats.

"My father likes you better," Ava said. "He usually tells Jeeves to get me the cheapest seat he can."

"You need to focus on what your father does for you and not on how he should give you more. You're ungrateful."

"My father never has only one reason for what he does. You'll find that out. For now, I'm grateful for these seats. How's that?"

"Better."

Ava got Coke and a plastic cup with ice from the flight attendant while Jax got a beer. He watched as Ava swallowed a white tablet.

"What are you taking?" Jax asked.

"Xanax. It keeps me calm when I fly. I hate flying but I like to go places. It's a necessary evil. Flying I mean. Not Xanax. You want one?"

"I'm good."

"Mr. Teller," the flight attendant said, "the pilot and co-pilot would love to take a picture with you. They like to do that with all the celebrities."

"I'm Jax," he said with a smile. "I'm not a celebrity, but if they want a picture, they can have one."

"Can you give us a moment?" Ava asked.

The flight attendant walked away. Ava leaned in close to Jax.

"When you go in the cabin with the pilots, smell their breath. Make sure they haven't been drinking."

Jax thought Ava's request was crazy, but he got that if she feared flying, this was something she might worry about. He wasn't sure how much Xanax would calm her down and he didn't want to spend five hours in the air with a crazier than usual Ava. He would tell her he'd checked the breath of the pilots and they hadn't been drinking.

He stood up and followed the flight attendant into the cockpit. He talked to the pilots for a few minutes and took pictures with them and a couple of flight attendants that joined in. When he returned to his seat, he assured Ava that he'd checked out the pilot and co-pilot and there was no alcohol on their breaths.

As the groups boarded the flight, many recognized Jax. Ava would have found it annoying, but the Xanax had kicked in. Ava wasn't bothered by all the fuss made over Jax. She didn't care. She didn't even want to kill him or her father.

When the plane took off, Jax took her hand in his and held it tightly. It was a surprising and unexpected gesture of comfort. It was something a hero in a Hallmark movie would do. Maybe there was _some_ hope for him, Ava thought.

Once the plane reached its cruising altitude and people were free to move around the cabin, people began to come up to Jax and ask for pictures. The flight attendants decided it would be more efficient and less of an imposition on Jax if he simply went section by section to take pictures with anyone who wanted one. Before Jax returned to his seat, he'd taken over fifty pictures with people. Jax was as close to famous as a lot of people were going to get.

He returned to his seat expecting to find an annoyed Ava. Instead, she was watching some kind of TV show on her tablet and was actually nice to him. He wasn't sure if the Xanax was responsible, but if it was, he needed to start slipping it into her food.

After a delicious seafood lunch, Jax decided to take a little nap. He hadn't slept much last night expecting Ava to return to their room at any minute. He wasn't used to sitting down for such a long stretch of time. Even in prison, alone in his cell, he didn't sit for long. He exercised alternating between cardio and muscle building exercises. He quickly fell asleep.

After an hour, he slowly opened his eyes halfway. He noticed Ava was watching the documentary on him. She was already coming around. He knew it wouldn't take long.

_**Next: Ava's Xanax wears off. Will her more favorable view of Jax go with it?**_

_**"**_


	48. Chapter 48 Ava Finds Her Type of Guy

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 48 Ava Finds Her Type of Guy**

"

Jax shut his eyes and gave Ava a few minutes to get to the end of the documentary.

"Watching the documentary?" he asked sitting up in his seat and opening his eyes.

"I was bored."

"What do you think?"

"Is it really true? I mean everything?"

"Yes. That's why there was so much pressure on the government to fix things."

"I didn't know my father took video of you when you were in the hospital. You looked like you were going to die in the video he took."

"You were there. You saw how I looked. I did almost die twice. That video helped too."

TB had his team show Jax strong, virile and handsome before he went into prison and then they added in the video of him pale, frail and near death. It was a powerful statement.

"It's typical that my father was already planning this documentary to get you out of prison and didn't say a word to me. I wonder how much was about helping you and how much was about screwing me over."

Jax shrugged.

"It doesn't matter to me. He got me out. That's all that matters to me."

"My father will sue the hell out of everyone involved. I don't think he's ever lost a lawsuit," Ava said.

She held back and didn't ask him to give her money back. It had taken an enormous amount of self-control. It had suddenly occurred to her that maybe Jax would get a big fat settlement and, as his wife, she was entitled to half. Maybe marrying Jax would pay off. Now that would be ironic.

"It takes years for that stuff to ever get settled," Jax said. He didn't think about what he could get as a result of lawsuits. Money didn't seem real unless you earned it with work.

"They do that because they think you will give up and either go away or go away with a small settlement. That never works with my father."

"You have something nice to say about your father."

Ava shrugged.

"He's a great attorney. To get there, he completely neglected me, but whose bitter?" she said with an unexpected smile.

The flight attendants began preparing for landing. Jax reached out and held Ava's hand tightly as they landed. It was strange for Ava. She couldn't remember the last time someone had comforted her. He'd taken her hand on take off and now on landing. The thoughtfulness surprised her. If she could get rid of some of his toxic masculinity, there might be a decent guy left. Not that she cared. He wasn't her type.

Once they had deplaned, a few people recognized Jax. Ava didn't feel like being an accessory, so she wandered into a gift shop. She found a great bright green sundress with big white and pink flowers. It would look great with her hair color. She didn't even look at the price. She never did. That was part of the joy of having money or rather having a credit card with her father paying her bills.

She wandered into another shop and was looking at the candy. When she saw him—her perfect guy. He was about three inches taller with perfectly cut light brown hair and deep chocolate brown eyes. He was slender without all the revolting muscles that Jax had. He was wearing perfectly pressed khaki pants with a white shirt with khaki stripes that perfectly matched, loafers and he was perfectly clean shaven. Now that was how a guy was supposed to look. Not like Jax with all that facial hair.

Jax finished up with the last of the picture seekers when he noticed Ava watching the guy in some candy store. She was looking at him like she was attracted to the guy. She sure as hell never looked at him like that.

Jax Teller never lost a girl to another guy and now here was his _wife_ looking at another guy like she wanted him right in the middle of a candy shop. It got worse, she was talking to him and _flirting_. He could tell by the way she was giggling and stroking her hair.

He walked into the candy store.

"Come along, Ava. We need to go," he said in a firm no-nonsense don't argue with me tone of voice.

"No, we don't. I need chocolate," she said picking up a can of chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

She bought the chocolate and slowly walked from the store with Jax, her eyes on her perfect guy.

"What's with you and that guy?" he demanded.

"Just looking and a little flirting," Ava said.

"You're married."

Ava burst into laughter.

"Calm down. I'm not going to sleep with him. He is my perfect guy though. Perfectly cut hair, great body and charming. He doesn't have all that toxic masculinity and muscles that you have."

"Most girls like a man with muscles."

"I don't."

Jax studied the guy carefully. Suddenly he broke into a wide grin.

"Sorry, darlin', you're perfect man is gay."

Ava's eyes flashed with anger.

"That's typical. A guy isn't toxic and soaked in testosterone and you have to say he's gay. He should be a role model to you."

They walked slowly to the exit level of the airport.

"Look over your shoulder and take a look at your perfect guy now," Jax said.

Ava looked over her shoulder and saw her perfect guy holding hands with another perfect guy. Damn it. Jax was right!

"Lucky guess."

"Uh-huh," Jax said grinning.


	49. Chapter 49 Too Much Man

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 49 Too Much Man**

"

Ava longed to slap the grin off Jax's face. The guy was flirting with her too _and_ he hadn't seemed at all gay.

"Just because you got lucky once doesn't mean you are an expert on spotting gay men."

"You were flirting with him," Jax said laughing.

"Damn you, Jax Teller. Quit laughing at me."

"You deserve it. You were going on about how this was your perfect guy. No toxic masculinity with him. He could be a role model for me."

"Just because he's gay doesn't mean that he can't be a role model for you. He has a nice level of masculinity. He is clean shaven and well groomed. And he flirted with me."

Jax doubled over with laughter.

"I'm sure he would have left his boyfriend for you if only you had had a few more minutes."

"You are just so toxic. You're laughing at a gay guy."

"No, Ava. I'm laughing at _you_."

"I still think you could learn from him. There's even a TV show about some gay guys that fix a straight guy. _Queer Eye for the Straight Guy_. It's on Netflix. Maybe that's what you need. A group of gay guys could help rid you of your toxic masculinity and turn down the volume on your testosterone. That's exactly how to fix you."

Jax laughed. Ava was like his own private comedy show. The stuff that came out of her mouth had to be heard to be believed.

"Let's get a drink and a snack," Jax said steering her into a restaurant Tiki decorated restaurant. He was hungry and based on the trip info from Jeeves, the hotel was at least an hour away once they got on the airport shuttle, then they have to check in and find a place to eat.

They ordered some appetizers of boneless Hawaiian style ribs and tempura onion rings with iced teas to drink.

"Seriously, Jax, I think if you had a team of gay guys helping you evolve, it would fix you right up."

Jax nodded pretending to think this over seriously.

"What if it turned me gay?"

Ava thought about that great possibility. Being married to a gay Jax would work out perfectly. She wouldn't have to fend off his sexual advances and they could have fun going shopping together. It would be like having a best friend.

"That would be great."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Not at all. I bet my phone knows where we could find some guys to help you when we get back to Charming unless you want to start now. I'm sure I could find some guys to help you here. My phone knows everything."

Jax burst into laughter again. He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed this much. Ava did have her uses.

"No, Ava. I'm not taking lessons from gay guys. I'm a man and I have it all figured out."

The waitress brought their food and drinks. Ava waited until she left them alone before speaking.

"Jax, that's the problem. You really don't have it figured out. You just ooze toxic masculinity. With a little help, you could be so much better."

"Uh-huh," Jax said before taking a bite of the boneless ribs.

"I love a project."

"Work on yourself then," Jax said.

Ava stared at him. What could possibly wrong with her? His suggestion didn't even make sense. He was just feeling bad because he had so many flaws and he was resisting the need to change.

She would help him with that especially since she'd figured out what she needed to do to help him. Maybe she could even get some of the guys to hang out at the clubhouse, transform the whole clubhouse and detoxify them all of their masculinity. The world would be a better place thanks to her.

"Jax, I just want to help you realize your full potential."

"What is my full potential? I'm a VP of my MC. One day I'm going to be president. I've got a great life. What are your goals in life? Wait around until your father's dead and then live a life of shopping and more shopping. How fulfilling is that?"

Ava didn't like the direction of this conversation. She'd never given much thought to her future ever. She just liked to take life as it came.

"I am a very spiritual person," Ava said defensively. She'd learned that at her spa retreat. "I bring goodness into the world. By helping you change and become more modern, I'll be putting out good karma into the world creating a better life for everyone."

"Good luck with that," Jax said.

They ate their ribs and onion rings. Ava was mad and was giving Jax the silent treatment. Unfortunately, he either didn't notice or care. Just more typical toxic behavior.

They were sipping their iced teas after finishing the food when Jax leaned over.

"I think you want me to be less of a man because you're worried that I'm more man than you can handle."

His voice was low in her ear and it sent shivers up and down her spine. This wasn't good at all, Ava thought, this wasn't good at all.

**"Next Up: Sun Tan Lotion and Muscles**

_**Author's Note: Grace—TB knows that Ava will get money from Jax's lawsuits, but it will take years. He doesn't want her to take money away from her. He wants her to change and money is the only way he can find to make the change happen. He thinks that Jax is grounded and Jax will teach Ava about a life that has a deeper meaning than chasing after money—a view that he needs to share with her, but he doesn't know how yet.**_


	50. Chapter 50 Dreams of Fairy Godfathers

4

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 50 Dreams of Fairy Godfathers**

"

Jax spent the forty-five minutes ride from the airport to the resort pointing out guys on the street to Ava and asking if she thought the guy was hot. The guys were obviously gay because they were with boyfriends. Jax would laugh. Ava wanted to give him a good jab in the stomach with her elbow, but instead she just ignored him. He had the maturity of a high schooler and was highly toxic.

The resort was large and sprawling boasting more than half a dozen restaurants and a dozen different snack areas right on a private beach. Jax and Ava's room was on the sixth floor with a large patio and an ocean view. It had a sofa and a couple of chairs, a desk and a large flat screen TV opposite the king sized bed. That pleased Ava. She didn't like anyone sleeping close to her.

"What do you want to do about dinner tonight?" Jax asked.

"Grab something in the hotel restaurant. I'm tired. Flying always exhausts me."

"OK. I was looking at the information Jeeves sent me. I'm going on a helicopter ride tomorrow, but you aren't down as going with me."

"I don't like flying and heights. Jeeves knows that. When he returned from Hawaii last year, he raved about the helicopter ride. I'm having hula lessons instead."

"You OK with us doing separate things?"

"OK with it? I'd prefer it," Ava said.

"Sorry I bothered to ask," Jax said sarcastically.

They grabbed burgers for dinner in the restaurant and had ice cream with pineapple lava sauce for dessert. That night, Ava read a romance novel on her tablet while Jax watched TV. They were like an old married couple.

The next morning, Jax left for his helicopter tour. For the first time since she'd discovered him in her bed back in Charming, Ava had a little bit of freedom. She wasn't used to having someone around all the time and she found having the constant company especially a man as toxic as Jax tiring.

Today they were having a low key day. After Jax returned and she finished her hula lesson, they would have lunch served to them in their beachside cabana. For dinner, they would try another of the resort's restaurants. As far as tomorrow went, Jeeves had given them several options. Ava wished one of the options was for them to have separate honeymoons. She'd have a much better time alone.

At least Jax hadn't tried to have sex last night. That was about the only thing that would have made the whole honeymoon thing worse. Her father was probably having a good laugh over sticking her with Jax for this fun filled honeymoon.

She wished she could live inside the dream she'd had last night. It was haunting her like when you hear a song and can't get it out of your head. In her dream, she was watching what was happening like it was a TV show. Three guys showed up at the hotel and said they were Jax's fairy godfathers and they were going to teach him how to be a proper non toxic man.

It had been wonderful. One taught him that his body was all wrong and he needed to quit lifting all those weights. He could be strong but all the muscles weren't necessary. A secure man didn't need muscular bulges to be a man. Jax was shocked at this and instantly realized that he was insecure and that's why he worked out. He vowed to quit working out so he could attain the type of body Ava preferred and that was non toxic.

Another of the fairy godfathers took Jax for a makeover. Gone was the shaggy blonde hair and disgusting facial hair. Jax's hair was cut in the parted on the side medium length style that Ava liked. He was cleanly shaven. For the first time since she met him, he looked better. Less like a thug and a criminal and more presentable like a man she wouldn't mind being seen with.

That fairy godfather also took him shopping for clothes. No more jeans, T-shirts and that disgusting leather vest. He could at least wear one that was vegan leather. He had clothes a Hallmark hero would be right at home in. There were even a couple of suits. Jax in a navy suit, crisp white shirt and a dark blue tie with short hair and a clean shaven face was actually not a terrible looking guy. She still wasn't attracted to him because it would take awhile for the muscles to go down, but it was a start.

The third fairy godfather fixed all of Jax's toxic masculinity so he was so woke, he could give Prince Harry and the Hollywood elite lessons on wokeness. He was super woke. Ava actually felt some pride when, at the urging of this fairy godfather, Jax gave a speech about toxic masculinity and how he had changed.

If Jax could just attain Hallmark hero perfection, she might be willing to give him a chance with her. If only her dream could come true. When she got back to Charming, she was going to find some guys to give Jax a makeover like in her dream.

"

_**Next: Hula Dancing & Suntan Lotion**_


	51. Chapter 51 Rub My Body

10

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 51 Rub My Body**

"

Ava had been to Hawaii several times and always took Hula lessons. She was far more skilled than the other women taking lessons. She didn't share that she'd taken lessons before. Instead she enjoyed being the star student. It was nice feeling that she was actually good at something.

Jax returned from his helicopter ride over the island. It was wonderful. He would be sure to thank Jeeves for planning that. It reminded him of riding his bike only in the air. He could understand how people got hooked on flying. There was a freedom and rush in moving through the air and defying gravity. Too bad that Ava was too afraid of flying to enjoy a helicopter ride.

From their schedule he knew where Ava was having her hula lesson and decided to check it out. He found a group of a dozen or so women ranging in age from late seventies to a couple of teenagers.

Jax watched Ava in her grass skirt move her hips gracefully. She was easily the best student. She was damned near as good as the two instructors. He felt an odd stab of pride. Strange. Then he thought about sex wondering if Ava could move her hips like that in bed.

Life was cruel. Here he was newly out of prison and he should be making up for all the sex he missed while he was locked up and his wife wouldn't have sex with him. Sooner or later, it was going to happen. Jax just hoped for his dick's sake that it would be soon.

Ava finally noticed him watching her. He could tell because she frowned. He chuckled. He enjoyed irritating Ava. It was easy and damned fun.

Next, the dancers did a movement with a lot of hip shaking. Jax liked that move a lot. It reminded him of all the good times spent in strip clubs. Ava could really shake her ass when she wanted. Again, sooner or later, she was going to be performing for him. That was definitely something to look forward to.

The lesson ended too soon for Jax. He wondered if Ava would like to show him some more of her hula dancing tonight. Who was he kidding? If he wanted her to do something, there was next to no chance she would do it.

Ava had left the grass skirt on a table at the end of the lesson. Jax made a mental reminder to get Ava a grass skirt to bring back to Charming. It could be a surprise present for her only he would know it was for his benefit.

"Did you enjoy watching?" Ava asked tartly.

"Yeah, I did," Jax said with a grin. "You can really move. Didn't know you had it in you."

"I love to dance. When I was really little, I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but my mother told me that I was going to be too tall. Doctors have charts that predict height. Ballet dancers are small and I wasn't going to be small. She let me take dance lessons more modern type dancing."

"We should go out dancing," Jax suggested. He wasn't a big fan of dancing but dancing with Ava could loosen her up and that could lead to sex.

"Maybe," Ava said. "I think there are a couple of dance clubs in the resort."

"We might actually enjoy ourselves," Jax said.

"We're supposed to have lunch on the beach in our private cabana. I'm already dressed for the beach."

Ava was wearing a bright floral print swimsuit that tied around her neck with a matching sarong skirt and bright green flip flops that she'd removed for her hula lesson.

"I need to change into my swim trunks and a T-shirt."

"I'll wait here. You don't need to worry about suntan lotion or towels. They'll have all that stuff in our cabana."

Jax nodded and left. While Ava waited, all she could think of was to hope like hell we wouldn't come back in a Speedo—the most disgusting form of male swimwear next to naked. She should have checked the clothes he brought with him. Great to think about this now. It didn't matter, they could just go into the hotel's gift shop and get him something else.

Ava had her large beach bag with her with her tablet, phone and her sunglasses. Anything else she needed, she could ask her cabana butler to get. She loved the beach but not lying on the sand out with all the people. She liked the privacy and more importantly it kept her skin from getting fried. Her fair skin even with a high SPF burned easily.

Jax returned in respectable red board shorts and a white SOA T-shirt. At least he didn't have his leather vest on. No Speedo. Ava felt like she'd dodged a bullet on that one.

"Do you know where the cabana is?" Jax asked.

"Yeah, I've stayed here before," Ava said leading the way.

"With a guy?"

"Why do you care?" Ava asked raising her eyebrows.

"I don't," Jax said indifferently. "I was just curious."

"Stay that way," Ava said coolly.

They walked down some steps and along one of the many paths around the resort. The resort grounds were perfectly landscaped with palm trees and lush vegetation. The paths wound around the resort with signs posting through to help lost visitors. Still most got lost at least once.

Ava led them to the beach and to their assigned cabana. Jeeves knew what she liked. His travel arrangements rivaled any first class travel agent, but then part of his job was to travel to places either TB or Ava wanted to go and come up with a travel itinerary. Her father found it more efficient to send Jeeves out to scout out and plan his vacations. He knew him so well, his travel plans were always perfect. It was a wonderful fringe benefit for Jeeves.

They had just settled into their cabana when a man appeared in white shorts and T-shirt emblazoned with the resort's name.

"I'm Paul and I'm your butler. After you've placed your order, I'll bring a cooler filled with drinks and snacks. I'll give you a few minutes to make your selection."

"Thanks," Jax and Ava said in a rare moment of unity.

"There's not a huge selection, but it's all delicious," Ava said.

"What are you having?"

"The Mahi Mahi salad. The fish and the dressing are delicious. It's so good, I find myself craving it for weeks after I've left here."

The cabana was spacious enough for six people. It had two lounge chairs, a stack of beach towels and an assortment of suntan lotions with SPFs ranging from 12 to 60. The sides could be rolled up. At the moment they were down for maximum privacy. The top was a heavy canvas material that didn't allow the sun to beat down on its occupants.

Paul returned with a cooler filled with soft drinks, water, a few bottles of iced tea and snacks. He took their order and left them.

Jax liked beaches but Hawaii made him love beaches. The powdery white sand looked so inviting it made him want to bury Ava in it. There were rows of cabanas. Guests on towels weren't allowed in this area. On either side, guests were spread out on large beach towels. Resort employees walked through the area selling food and suntan lotion.

Watching the waves roll in relaxed him and made him a little sleepy. Maybe the water would have a similar calmly effect on his bride.

"So is this how you usually do Hawaii?"

"I do a few days here and then go so some other places. It's nice because I can stay at the resort and not have to leave. They have everything anyone could need here."

"You never get to see Hawaii outside the resort?"

"Sometimes if I'm traveling by myself, it works best that way."

"You don't want to see what's beyond the resort?"

"I have my own way of traveling that works for me," Ava said stiffly.

Paul appeared with a smaller cooler containing their lunch and a small sack that contained eating utensils and napkins. He offered to serve them lunch, but Jax told him that he could handle that. Unlike Ava, he wasn't used to having people do everything for him and he wasn't comfortable being waited on.

They settled into their lounge chairs and ate their salads.

"I thought a salad wouldn't be much to eat, but this is a lot of food. The fish is delicious," Jax said.

"The dressing is so complex. I know there's pineapple juice, sesame oil and olive oil, but that's as far as I can figure it out."

"You're ahead of me on that. It's never occurred to me to wonder how something's made."

After they finished lunch, Jax put everything back in the smaller cooler and placed it outside their cabana for Paul to pick up.

"I think I'm going for swim," Jax said stripping off his shirt. He was proud of the hard work he'd done on his body and he liked to show it off.

Ava stared at the reaper tattoo on his back. It could have been worse, he could be wearing a Speedo. She shook her head wondering why anyone would get something that ugly on his back. It was embarrassing. He would need to get that removed.

"You need suntan lotion or you'll fry. Just because it's not intensely hot doesn't mean you aren't going to get sunburned."

Jax reached into the basket of suntan lotions grabbing the one with the highest SPF.

"You want to help me here?" Jax asked.

Ava looked up at him with his ripped body and shook her head. Nothing. She felt absolutely no stirring of sexual interest. He was just too tall, too broad and too muscular. He was like an animal. Sex with him would be debasing and something that would always give her nightmares. Maybe if he would quit working out and his body would go back to normal he wouldn't be so bad. Well, except for his personality. That wasn't likely to change. Not unless she could find a trio of gay guys to give him an appearance and personality makeover and detoxify him.

"Thanks but no thanks," she said putting on her sunglasses.

Jax held his temper and began rubbing suntan lotion on his body beginning with his legs. He couldn't see her eyes, but he suspected that she was checking him out as he rubbed the lotion on his well muscled legs. Next he slowly rubbed the lotion on his abs and arms.

"You're going to have to do my back," Jax said.

"Why?" Ava demanded.

"Because I can't," Jax said trying hard to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

"Paul will do it for you. He should be by any minute to take our lunch things away or he'll call one of the suntan lotion butlers."

"A suntan lotion butler?"

"Yeah, the guys come and apply suntan lotion. I'm going to have one of them help me. I always do."

"You weren't married then. You are now."

"So what? It's suntan lotion."'

"I don't want some man putting his hands all over you," Jax said hotly.

Jax wasn't jealous. He just didn't want some guys hands all over Ava. It was a respect thing. Old ladies didn't let men touch around on them. Hell, he hadn't even touched Ava. He sure as hell didn't want another man doing it.

"What are you going to do? Sternly scold me if I get a suntan lotion butler to help me?"

"You don't need someone to help you," Jax said leaning down so she would be sure to hear his words. "That's what I'm for."

Ava smiled. Jax knew she was going to let one of those guys rub suntan lotion on her just to disobey and disrespect him.

Ava stood up and walked over to him.

"If I put the lotion on your back, will you go away for awhile? I want to take a nap before I go in the water."

"As long as I don't see some guy rubbing around on you."

"Sure," Ava said.

Jax couldn't see her eyes but by the tone of her voice, he didn't believe her. He would just have to keep an eye on his wife because there would be hell to pay if one of those suntan lotion butlers put his hands all over Ava. She belonged to him.

Jax checked out Ava in her one piece suit. He would have preferred her in a bikini so there would be more skin showing. He expected her to dress a lot sexier. That would change when she started to dress for him like a proper old lady.

She came close to him to squeeze the coconut scented lotion into her hand. She was close enough for him to look down the front of her suit, so he did. It was an automatic reaction. Nice plump tits nestled in her bathing suit top. Great cleavage and all real according to his practiced eye. He liked real breasts. They were softer and more responsive to his touch. With fake boobs, he was always trying to feel for where the bag of whatever the hell they filled them with was.

"You looked down the front of my swimsuit!" Ava exclaimed indignantly.

"If I see tits, I'm going to look. You have nice boobs," Jax said. He figured the compliment would calm her down.

"I'm not a piece of meat for you to assault with your eyes. I hate when people refer to a women's breasts as boobs or tits. It's so crude and disrespectful."

"I think it's so people don't get them confused with animals. Chickens have breasts, but no one ever says I want a chicken tit sandwich or a chicken boob sandwich. Those words are just for women," Jax pointed out matter-of-factly.

"They are still offensive. More toxic male crap," Ava said. A hero in a Hallmark movie would never look down the top of a woman. They were respectful. "Just turn around so I can get this over with," Ava said. "Where did you get this disgusting tattoo?"

"It's my MC tattoo," Jax said furiously. "It's an honor to have it on my back."

"So you can make crude comments about my breasts and I should respect your tattoo. You have a lot to learn about equality."

There wasn't equality for women in an MC. Jax thought about pointing this out, but the beach was waiting and swimming was more fun. Educating Ava in the ways of the MC could wait. The MC way was the right way. Old ladies were property and were obedient to their old men. It was simple. None of this equality bull shit that had destroyed modern life. Ava had a lot to learn.

Ava began spreading the lotion on his back as quickly so she could so she could be done with him. She just wanted a few minutes of peace and quiet without Jax Teller and his toxic masculinity near her.

A smile crossed her face. She bent down and scooped up big handfuls of sand using her sarong skirt to hold it before dumping it down the back of Jax's swim trunks.

He more than deserved it for looking down the front of her swim suit.

"

_**Next Chapter: Shark Bite**_


	52. Chapter 52 Shark Attack

5

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 52 Shark Attack**

"

Ava watched as Jax's face turned bright red with anger.

"Ava," Jax said furiously, "I swear to God you are going to regret that."

"I don't think so," she said laughing. Now this was the only fun part of marriage—messing with Jax—and knowing there wasn't a damned thing he could do to her.

Jax shifted uncomfortably in his swim trunks but it was too late. Sand was already working its way up his ass.

"When I rinse off . . ." Jax threatened.

"I'm so scared," Ava said mockingly. "Ohhh . . ."

Jax walked off into the water. He planned to swim out far enough where he didn't need to worry about anyone near him, remove his trunks and do some sand removal.

What he planned to do to Ava . . . He had no idea. Not being able to hit her limited his options as she knew only too well. Son of a bitch. This is why females needed to be taught obedience at birth.

Paul finished helping Ava apply suntan lotion to her body. Ava had lost sight of Jax when he got into the water so she didn't know if he saw Paul rubbing the lotion on her or not. She hoped he had. It was so much fun getting under his skin and making him mad knowing there wasn't a damned thing he could do about it.

She was disappointed when he didn't return to the cabana. It seemed likely he hadn't seen Paul rubbing her with suntan lotion. There would be other opportunities to annoy him and she would need another application or two of suntan lotion later.

The sound of the waves always relaxed her and made her drowsy. She put her sunglasses on, settled herself into her lounge chair and shut her eyes for a quick nap. She didn't want Jax sneaking up on her.

After Jax finally finished washing all the sand out of his body and its well muscled crevices, he pulled his swim trunks back on. He swam for awhile trying to come up with a plan to get back at Ava.

She could make his life a living hell and he needed to get control of her and her out of bounds behavior sooner than later. The longer she believed she could mess with and defy him, the harder it was going to be to get her into line and make her a proper old lady. They many not be permanently married, but he could not have an old lady that was defiant. It would make him look weak with SAMCRO and set a poor example. He was the future president and Ava's out of control behavior was not going to jeopardize that.

It was impossible to see inside the cabana at a distance so he had no way of knowing if someone was rubbing his hands all over Ava's body. It wouldn't surprise him if she'd defied him and had one of those suntan lotion butlers apply lotion to her. Hell, she was probably lying about suntan lotion butlers just to piss him off. They probably didn't even exist. He rolled over on this back and floated for awhile trying to think of something he could do to Ava.

He finally had a plan to teach Ava a lesson. He swam into shore and found a small child with a large bucket. He convinced the little boy to let him borrow the bucket for a few minutes. He went to the water's edge and filled it full to the brim of water and returned to the cabana holding the bucket down at his side.

Ava was asleep, he could tell by the relaxed posture of her body.

"Ava," Jax called sweetly as he sprinkled a little water on her, "it's starting to rain."

Ava didn't stir.

"It's raining harder," he said louder. "It's a storm. You're going to get drenched." He dumped the entire bucket of water on her head.

Ava woke up sputtering and coughing. Some of the water had gone up her nose. She jumped to her feet knocking her sunglasses off in her haste.

"You son of a bitch! I'm going to kill you," Ava said furiously with fire in her eyes.

"You don't want to do that. You'd get beaten to death your first day in prison."

"Oh, I'm not going to prison," she said hotly. "My father will get me the best criminal attorneys and I'll get off with an insanity plea. I'm going to say you drove me crazy."

Jax turned and ran tossing the now empty bucket to the little boy as he ran past him. He wasn't fleeing his bride out of fear. He was luring her out into the water. He turned his head to see Ava chasing after her, her breasts bouncing seductively in her swimsuit.

Ava didn't know what she was going to do to Jax when she caught up with him. She would wait for inspiration when she got her hands on him. All she knew at the moment was it wouldn't be pleasant.

"You son of a bitch," Ava said her voice low and angry. It was one of the few things her father had taught her that stuck—don't yell in public.

Her head had gotten drenched. Her hair was a soggy mess and her make-up was smeared. The rest of her body was dry. He'd deliberately focused on dumping water where it would do the most damage.

"You have no sense of humor," Jax said taunting her.

"I'll give you a sense of humor in a place you won't like."

Jax could outrun her, but in the water, they were both slow and she might have a chance at catching up to him. Suddenly he disappeared.

"Coward!" she shouted. There were no swimmers near them so it was OK to raise her voice. "You little fucker come up and face me."

A Hallmark heroine would never use "fuck" in any form, but Jax was below the caliber of a Hallmark hero. He was stuffed with toxic masculinity and it was causing her bad behavior.

There was no response. She was in water that was a little more than waist deep. Her eyes swiftly scanned the water. No sign of Jax. He couldn't have held his breath for this long. Maybe he'd drowned. That would be the best thing that had ever happened to her. She'd never wanted to be a wife, but she'd love to be his widow.

"Bastard," she said. "I hope you drow . . ." before Ava could finish her sentence, she felt something bite her ankle.

Ava screamed. She was being attacked by a shark!


	53. Chapter 53 I'd Rather Kiss a

3

**Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale**

**Chapter 53 I'd Rather Kiss a . . . **

"

Jax rose up out of the water and Ava screamed louder. The water cascaded off Jax's body and for a moment, Ava just saw something large with water dripping from it.

Jax laughed so hard, he was doubled over.

"I was hoping you'd drowned."

"You thought I was a shark," he said laughing. "Didn't you wonder where the fin was?"

"If the shark is deep in the water, you don't see the fin. I felt something bite me."

"It was my fingernails on your ankle."

"Asshole," Ava said.

For a moment her fear of a shark attack caused her to forget that she was going to kill him for dumping a bucket of water over her head. She still wanted to kill him maybe even more now that he'd terrorized her by pretending to be a shark. He was only about four feet away from her. She waded through the water careful where she placed her feet; she didn't want to step on something sharp like a sea urchin.

"Wave," Jax said, grabbing her and wrapping his arms tightly around her.

For a moment, Ava was seduced by the romance of the moment. He was holding and protecting her. Now those well muscled arms of his served an actual purpose as they held her to his chest. As the wave came down on them, they lost their balance, he lost his grip on her and they both got pulled underwater.

Ava was confident in water and this wasn't the first wave that had knocked her off her feet. She didn't panic when she was pulled under and couldn't find which way was up. As she twisted and turned trying to find her way up and out of the water, her lungs began to burn from lack of oxygen. She began to worry when suddenly a big hand reached out to her. Jax pulled her through the water until she could stand, her head out of the water and breathe. He'd acted just like a hero in one of her Hallmark movies and then he had to ruin it by kissing her.

At first, her feelings of goodwill for him trying to protect her from the wave and then helping her when she was underwater led her to yield as he pulled her into his arms again and kissed her with a hard punishing kiss. She might have even responded a tiny bit at first. Then he put his tongue in her mouth and down her throat like a tongue depressor in a doctor's office. She hadn't been quick enough to close her mouth. She struggled, trying to push him away. He was just so damned strong, it was like trying to move a wall.

He released her, a big smirking grin on his face. She didn't think she could hate him anymore than at that moment.

"That was gross! It was the most disgusting kiss that I've ever had in my entire life," Ava said raising her voice in her fury. Her blue-green eyes seemed to be shooting sparks. She'd never been that angry in her life.

Jax debated between pulling her back into his arms for another kiss or fanning the flames of her anger. He picked the second choice. More fun.

He laughed at her.

"You disgusting son of a bitch," Ava hissed. Time to kill him. She wished she could double kill him. She moved closer.

"Get any closer and I'll kiss you again," Jax warned.

Ava stopped.

"I'd rather kiss a dog than kiss you," she snapped. "They kiss better."

"Yeah, you enjoyed every second of it and now you have to deny it. I understand. You just can't admit how much you want me."

"Oh, I want you all right," she said in a low purr. "I want you to kill you," she said screaming. "That kiss was gross. It's going to give me nightmares. It was like having a snake in my mouth. You are a terrible kisser."

Jax just laughed at her. Her words bounced off him not shaking his confidence in the least.

"You know Ava, I think your problem is you've never been kissed by a real man. You like gay guys and they don't know how to kiss girls."

"Go fuck yourself Mr. Toxic Male. You don't understand how a real man is supposed to be. You think it's all this macho business with muscles and tongues. It's disgusting. You're vile. I'm going back to the cabana and get Paul to get me some mouthwash so I can wash the taste of you out of my mouth before I vomit."

Jax grabbed Ava by the arms.

"I'll save you a trip," he said tightly. "Open wide."

He lifted her up into his arms and then dropped her squirming and swearing into the water. She hit with a splash. He smiled as he watched the water close over her head.

"Ava, here comes a shark," he said as he dove into the water.


	54. Chapter 54

5

**Taming Ava/Fixing Jax**

**Chapter 54 There's Always a Catch **

"

Jax swam close to Ava then slipped out of her grasp every time she tried to grab him. It brought back happy memories of elementary school when he and Opie used to chase girls on the playground to give them a kiss on the cheek or to pull their hair. Those were the good old days before a little boy would find himself cuffed in the back seat of a police car for doing that today.

Ava gave up after several attempts and kicked her way up to the surface, She waded in the water until the water came to her thighs. He was too fast for her to catch and she'd had enough.

Jax stood up in the water a few yards from her.

"That was fun," he said cheerfully. "Want to play shark again?"

He was reviling in being out of prison and in a tropical paradise. Life was damned good. He didn't understand why Ava couldn't see it that way.

Ava's temper wasn't cooled by the water. She was still furious at Jax for dumping a bucket of water over her head, scaring her into thinking she'd been attacked by a shark and kissing her.

"I want to kill you," Ava said seriously.

"Really?" Jax asked with a grin.

"Yes, really, you idiot," she snapped. "You are disgusting. Hate doesn't begin to describe how much I hate you."

Jax laughed. This was the most fun he'd had with a girl outside of sex since he couldn't remember when. He never dreamed he would have this much fun with Ava. The angrier she got, the more fun he had.

"OK. I'll tell you what I'll do for you, my beautiful bride; you can punch me as hard as you like. Those little doll hands of yours aren't going to do any damage. Better yet, I'll let you punch me three times in the stomach."

"Why?" Ava demanded suspiciously.

"To make amends."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch," Jax said as he raised his hands out to his side motioning for her to hit him.

Ava thought about how nice it would feel to hit Jax. The sun was shining on his bright blonde hair and he thought he was so sexy and irresistible that she would fall into bed with him.

He reeked with toxic male entitlement. She wanted to hurt him and he was inviting her to do it. How could she turn down such a tempting invitation?

She waded over to him. Her fingers itched to wipe the smile off his face. As she drew back her fist, she saw him tighten his already rock hard abs. She punched him. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He didn't flinch and her fist had practically bounced off him like he was a superhero.

"Is that the best you can do?" he taunted her.

Ava drew back her fist and punched him again with the same result. He chuckled. This time she hit him as hard as she could and once again, nothing happened. Those chiseled abs of his had actually made her fist hurt.

He grabbed her, pulling her roughly into his arms,

"You said there was no catch," she said accusingly as she struggled to free herself.

"I lied. There's always a catch."

He subjected her to another gross tongue down her throat kiss. Ava thought the first kiss was bad, but this one was worse because it lasted longer. When he finally released her, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"That was the most disgusting, revolting kiss of my entire life."

Jax was smiling as though he were pleased with himself. This only further enraged Ava.

"Come on, tell me how you really feel," he suggested.

"I hope a shark comes by, bites your dick off and you bleed to death."

"All that over a couple of little kisses?"

"Wet, sloppy, gross kisses. I bet you learned to kiss from your family dog."

Jax thought that over for a few moments.

"Damn. You're right. I did make out with our dog a few times," he said chuckling without a trace of embarrassment.

"And you haven't gotten any better."

"I've never had any complaints until you."

"I don't even want to think about what else you might have learned from your dog."

"I do have my limits," Jax said. "I never went beyond first base with Nellie our dog no matter what anyone says," he joked.

Ava scowled at him. There wasn't anything she could do to him. No words she flung at him could hurt him and, after punching him, she knew she had no power to physically hurt him. All she could do was go back to the cabana and get away from him.

"Are you sure you don't want to play shark again?" Jax called after her.

As Jax watched her retreating figure, he wondered where things had gone wrong.

"

_**Author's Note: It's been a rough few weeks for me. My computer died. Thank you HP. No, really thank you HP. Such a quality product. Guess which brand I'm not buying again? I also had an accident that left me bruised, swollen and battered. I got a concussion that left a few gaps in my memory. My brain is still a little scrambled and I'm in constant pain. I won't be posting as often until I recover. Time heals and HP sucks!**_

**Also to the reader who mentioned Jax getting an annulment from Ava because she won't sleep with him, he would be a laughingstock if everyone knew that Jax Teller God's gift to women couldn't get his own wife to have sex with him. He would lose a lot of his swagger.**


	55. Chapter 55 Ava Gets a New Plan

4

**Chapter 55 Ava Gets a New Plan**

"

"

Ava was still angry over Jax kissing her twice. Slurping, wet tongue shoved down her throat kisses. They were far below romance novel caliber kisses and Hallmark movie kisses. If rated on a scale, they would be in the negative numbers. It was no wonder Jax was such a bad kisser though considering he learned from his family dog. He didn't even have the common decency to be embarrassed about it. How the hell could she have married such a loser? It was extra humiliating because she'd actually _paid_ him to marry her.

Why the hell couldn't she have found some nice inmate that would have stayed in prison like she'd planned? What were the chances she'd pick a guy who was innocent and set up by the government? Leave it to her father to get him out of prison. Why wouldn't this nightmare end? How could she endure three years with Jax Teller? She thought she'd had all these thoughts before but she wasn't sure. If she had, she was having them again and there was still no answer.

Why couldn't he just act like a guy was supposed to act? When he pulled her up from the water, it had been so romantic and then he spoiled it with that nightmare kiss. Why the hell couldn't he figure out that all she wanted was for him to cradle her tenderly in his arms for a few moments. Too bad the family dog couldn't teach him about romance. On the other hand, it was probably good the family dog only taught him how to kiss given how badly that had turned out.

She got back to her cabana, dried off and stretched out in the lounge chair, her eyes shut so if Jax returned she wouldn't have to see him. She'd learned that she didn't have the physical strength to kill him. Even if she got him really drunk, she wouldn't have the strength to shove him over the balcony railing at their hotel.

Maybe death was too high a price for being an annoying, dog kissing loser. Her opinion was subject to change but for the present, killing him was probably over the top and it was unlikely she could pull it off without getting caught. And her father seemed to really like Jax. If she got arrested for killing Jax, he might not help her get off.

Now that murder was out as a solution, at least for now, she needed a new plan. She opened her eyes and saw him back on the beach surrounded by another cluster of women and a couple of guys all wanting selfies. The world was going to hell with social media paving the way.

She knew she should check to see if anything about Jax and their marriage had turned up on social media, but she didn't want to know the answer. She didn't want to look at pictures of Jax with his groupies. She didn't want to see what her fake friends had to say if they knew she was married to the famous Jax Teller, poster man for wrongful convictions and government insanity.

Ava shut her eyes and got an idea on how she could get out of her marriage to Jax. She wasn't sure if she were hallucinating or if she were in some strange dreamlike state neither awake nor asleep. This idea was better than murder and if for some reason it failed, she wouldn't get arrested.

Most of Ava's upbringing had been done by television. She thought it showed real life. The plans the characters came up with usually worked out or if they failed, everything still worked out. Her plan was definitely TV show level. That had to mean it would work out.

Jax thought he was such a damned expert when it came to gay men. She was still mad at him for making fun of her because that guy she thought liked her was gay. This plan would get back at him for that too. She was going to make Jax look gay. It was simple but brilliant.

It was so perfect. Her father had almost a phobia about sex. He had never told her about sex. She'd learned the biology and birth control aspects from an enlightened high school and romance novels filled in the feelings part of sex.

She would send him an email telling him that Jax wouldn't have sex with her because he was gay and she didn't know what to do. She would show him some pictures of Jax with men. He would be passed out drunk and they would be staged, but her father wouldn't know that. Her father wouldn't confront Jax because her father would never talk about sex. If she hadn't been born, she could have sworn her father had never even had sex.

If her father did confront Jax, he couldn't say much because the pictures were proof. His MC might not look too favorably at having a gay member. Jax wouldn't want those pictures passed around the clubhouse. He would agree to an annulment or divorce to keep those pictures away from his MC and he would give back the money she had paid him to marry her.

As far as Jax's lawsuits for wrongful imprisonment or whatever they were going to call them, their divorce could help because they could blame the divorce on him being locked up and it damaged their marriage. More money for both of them.

Her father would feel so bad for her, he would help her get an annulment or divorce from Jax and change his will to make amends to her.

That sloppy taught by a dog kissing bastard was going to be sorry when she got her revenge and her freedom.

"

_**Author's Note: It may seem that no one could believe that Jax was gay, but there are all kinds of stories about men and women deciding after twenty years of marriage that they are gay. **_

_**I also watched a few minutes of an old episode of the British version of Queer as Folk that Charlie Hunnam starred in early in his career for inspiration. And Ava thinks life is like TV.**_

**Next Chapter: Ava Gets Her First Picture**


	56. Chapter 56 Run away Ava!

4

**Chapter 56 Run Ava, Run!**

"

"

Although Ava had her new plan to get Jax out of her life while staying in her father's will, she knew it would take awhile to implement it. She was still trapped in this joke of a honeymoon. To be honest, she was looking forward to the New Orleans part of the trip. She had wanted to go back since she'd been a kid.

The itinerary Jeeves put together looked like a lot of fun. It even included a haunted midnight cemetery tour. She would never be brave enough to go alone and it was better to go with someone she knew even if that person kissed like a dog.

He really needed to watch some Hallmark movies to see how a kiss was supposed to be done. How could a guy think kissing like a dog was romantic? There was nothing romantic about a man trying to gag you with his tongue.

Ava opened her eyes and saw Paul passing by the cabana.

"Do you need anything?" he asked.

She was about to ask for mouth wash to get rid of that Jax Teller taste, but she changed her mind. This was a perfect opportunity to practice her plan. She could try out her tragic tale of her marriage on Paul.

Everyone always thought actors had so much talent because they could say words that someone wrote out for them. That didn't take talent. What took talent was making up a story and acting it out live without the benefit of rehearsals, re-takes or a director. It was real life and far harder than acting on some dumb TV show.

"If you could just reach me a bottle of Coke from the cooler, I'd really appreciate it," Ava said sweetly.

Paul opened it before handing it to her.

"Would you mind rubbing some suntan lotion on my back? I'm afraid my skin's going to fry if I go out into the sun again."

She wasn't worried that Jax would come storming over in some kind of rage. His back was to her and he was far too busy meeting and greeting his adoring fans.

Ava sat up leaning a little forward so he could apply the lotion.

"I noticed the name Teller on the cabana. Is that Jax Teller from the documentary?" Paul asked nodding his head in the direction of Jax.

Ava knew from the way Paul looked at her and the slow strokes he was using with his fingers on her back, that he was into her and enjoying himself. He would be the perfect sympathetic audience.

"Yes. It's tragic what the government did to him. A real crime. Really, people should go to prison so they would know what it felt like. I married him while he was in prison because I loved him and wanted to help him." Ava rubbed at her eyes trying to make it look like her eyes were tearing up. "I thought he loved me too, but he was just using me for my father's legal connections."

"That's horrible," Paul said automatically. People always wanted sympathy for something. He didn't blame Jax for using a spoiled rich girl to get out of prison. It was the smart thing to do.

"He not only doesn't love me, it turns out he doesn't even like girls," Ava shut her eyes pretending the reality of this confession was too much for her. She put her hand over her heart to emphasis how sad she felt.

"He doesn't like girls?" Paul asked watching Jax. He didn't pick up on Jax being gay and he considered himself an expert.

"No. He fell madly in love with his cellmate. He won't even have sex with me," Ava dropped her voice to a whispered sort of moan. "I don't think I can stay married to him. It breaks my heart that he will never be able to love me because he loves men."

"That does sound like a big problem for a marriage," Paul said as he finished up applying suntan lotion to Ava's back. "Is there anything else?"

"No," Ava said putting heartbreak in her voice. "Thank you for listening."

Jax began walking towards the cabana finally free of his admiring entourage. Paul rushed out to intercept Jax. Ava wondered if Paul were going to come to her defense and tell Jax how horrible he was for mistreating Ava.

For a few moments she wondered what it would feel like to have someone stick up for her. When she was little, Jeeves used to come to her defense. When she became a teen, that changed and he turned on her. Paul did seem to be crushing on her a little though. He might say something to Jax.

Ava's eyes got big. Oh, hell, hell and hell! Fucking hell! If Paul told Jax about her telling him that Jax was gay, that could be a problem. A big one.

Jax had turned when Paul came up to him and she saw him look at her. Paul had a strange smile on his face. What was going on with that? Jax was only about fifteen feet away and she couldn't completely read the expression in his eyes. That might be good because just looking at the expression on his face was a little scary.

Run away, Ava! Run away now! The voice in her head was screaming at her.

Ava had her phone, room card, some money and a credit card in a waterproof case she wore on a belt around her waist. She slipped on her flip flops and ran as fast as she could through the sand.

It wasn't until she was in their room that it occurred to her that Jax would figure out where she'd gone. She wished the voice in her head was smarter. Damn you voice in my head, she cursed.

Screw it! She wasn't afraid of Jax. Well, not very afraid of him. What could he really do to her? Scold her? Give her another dog kiss?

Ava underestimated Jax Teller's creativity.

"

_**Author's Note: Last year I wrote a short three chapter story called Trick or Treating Happy Style. If you're looking for a light silly Halloween story, give it a read. I think you'll like it and you'll find out one of Happy's biggest secrets-what he keeps under his bed.**_


	57. Chapter 57 She Said What

5

**Chapter 57 She Said What?**

"

"

Jax saw Paul applying suntan lotion to Ava's back. He didn't bother going over to the cabana to put a stop to it, he'd simply turned his back. Ava was just trying to provoke him and he wasn't going to fall into her trap.

Two young women in their twenties one with long wavy blonde hair and the other cotton candy pink hair were posing for selfies with Jax. They both had large breasts and tiny bikinis; just his type of girl.

"That back tattoo," the pink haired woman squealed, "is like so amazing."

"Can I touch it?" the other one asked batting her long false eyelashes at Jax.

"Sure, darlin'," Jax said. Their faces were a little over decorated for the beach but he wasn't going to hold it against them.

"Could we take selfies with you and your back tattoo with your head turned so everyone will know it's you? My friends will die with envy," the blonde said.

"If they are half as pretty as you two, that would be a real shame," Jax said with a grin. Both girls giggled.

"How about we go have a drink?" the blonde asked.

"Our treat," added pink hair.

Jax knew that drinks would lead to an epic threesome. He had been without sex for so damned long and sex with Ava was nowhere in sight. He was tempted.

Ava was in the cabana and she was certain to notice him leave with two blondes. She didn't deserve his fidelity because she wouldn't sleep with him, but he made a promise to TB that he wouldn't cheat on Ava. For now, he would exercise self-control.

"I'd love to but I'm here with my old lady," Jax said nodding his head in Ava's direction.

"If you can get away later, we're here for three more days," the woman with pink hair said.

"Here's my cell number just in case," the blonde said slipping him a cell phone number.

"Tempting," Jax said slipping the number into the waterproof pocket in his swimming trunks with a smile, "Very tempting."

Several selfies and six or seven people later, a brunette came up to him with a sly smile on her face.

"Are you really a biker?" she purred.

"Outlaw biker," Jax corrected looking down the front of her bikini top.

"What's the difference?" she asked stroking the top of the python that was tattooed on her right breast.

"We exceed posted speed limits."

The woman laughed as she continued to stroke her breast.

"Is that all?" she pouted appearing disappointed. "Maybe if we went back to my room, you could tell me more about your bad boy ways or show me?"

That was a lot awkward, Jax thought. It wouldn't have stopped him from going to her room for sex, but his self-control was holding.

"I'm with my old lady," Jax said once more nodding in Ava's direction. "You're just going to have to remember me from the picture."

When Jax had nodded in Ava's direction he noticed Paul and Ava appeared deep in conversation. There was no doubt in Jax's mind that Ava thought Paul was really into her. She was practically a gay man magnet only she didn't know the guys were gay. Ava didn't seem to understand the real world she lived in. He'd show her what reality really looked like.

Ava had a lot to learn about kissing, but he had deliberately made the kiss extra moist and full of tongue. She'd started things when she dumped sand in his trunks. Of course, he had swiftly retaliated with a bucket of water over her head. It was life in the MC world where retaliation was supposed to be swift and harsh. She punched him three times. She deserved that second big sloppy dog kiss.

Of course, he could have kissed her into a coma of bliss. He was really that good. He was waiting for the right moment. For now, he was having a lot of fun making her mad.

Finally the last of the selfie seekers was gone. Just as he was about to head back to the cabana and Ava, Paul walked over to him.

"I hope you don't get sunburned," Paul said. "I could help you if you get sunburned. I mean help you later."

"What has Ava been telling you," Jax asked.

Jax had a feeling that Paul was making a very subtle pass at him. Why would he think he was gay? He looked at Ava sitting in her lounge chair and knew she had something to do with it.

"Ava confessed to me very tactfully," Paul hesitated for a moment before giving up and spilling it all, "that you fell in love with your cellmate in prison, you got your heart broken and she's afraid her marriage is doomed because you don't like girls and won't have sex with her."

"Ava told you I was gay?" Jax asked incredulously.

"Yes. I was surprised because I wasn't picking up that signal. You're just so . . . masculine."

Jax shook his head disgusted with Ava.

"Not gay. Not even a little. Ava is bat shit crazy."

"Sorry to hear that," Paul said sadly. "I mean about both; you not being gay and her being bat shit crazy."

"I shouldn't tell you this." Jax said lowering his voice. "Ava is beyond bat shit crazy. She's mentally ill. I think she's off her medication. I'm just trying to keep her out of an institution."

Paul's eyes widened with surprise. He hadn't expected that, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. It was just too damned bad that Jax Teller wasn't gay.

"Can I at least get a selfie with you?"

"Sure," Jax said. "Just no gay captions."

"Deal," Paul said with a nervous laugh.

After Paul took a picture with him, a couple of people came up also wanting pictures. It took a few minutes before Jax finally returned to the cabana to get his flip flops. He'd left his phone back in the hotel room. It was locked so there was nothing for Ava to get her hands on.

The walk back to their hotel room fueled his anger. It was one thing to tell him he kissed like a dog which considering the wet kisses was fair, but it was another thing to tell a gay man that he was gay, was in love with his cellie and wouldn't have sex with her. Ava had taken it too fucking far.

Jax opened the door with his key card. He was surprised that she hadn't barred the door with the thick metal sliding bolt lock. That would have prevented him from getting in. She'd probably forgotten.

Given how fast Ava had cleared out of the cabana when she saw Paul talking to him, she must suspect that Paul told him about his conversation with her. He heard the shower and tried the door. She'd remembered to lock that door.

Bathroom doors had cheap useless locks. A kick, a shoulder hit or a pocket knife could make quick work of the lock. This wasn't the first time he had opened a bathroom lock with a pocket knife.

"

_**Good news Jax isn't a bad kisser. He was playing Ava. **_

_**"**_

_**Bad news this site's got some programming issues. It appears as I write this on 11/5 late at night that the problem is fixed. Sometimes they don't always stay fixed.**_


	58. Chapter 58 Naked and Afraid

6

"

_**Author's Note: **__**Software Bugs**__** This site is once again experiencing problems. I normally change the image with each new chapter. This feature isn't working. I have submitted the problem to the support at fanfiction dot com. I wrote it out to get around the software. Who knows when or if they will ever fix it.**_

_**This is a system wide problem. If you write, you have probably lost your avatar image and images off all or most of your stories. When you look at it from the writing side, it appears that the avatar and all the images for each story are there, but when you look at it from the reader's side, it's disappeared. Saving the image again or reloading it doesn't help.**_

_**Between the different names I write under I lost all the avatars and fourteen images for stories. The only two that continue to exist are for Little Toy Bikers and Taming Ava.**_

_**This site is so buggy and this is coming shortly after the chapter bug that falsely notified readers of new chapters being posted and because this site's software is truly special, it deleted a chapter or two from the ones that had been previously posted. Again this was a system wide problem.**_

_**I try to make this site better but I could use your voice too to let the support staff know about the bugs on this site. Also, it looks like most of the images from the mobile site have vanished. **_

_**There are lots more ads. They ought to use some of that money to hire competent support staff or add to existing staff or buy software that works. I need to learn how to use Tumblr or start posting on Wattpad. **_

_**Also if you write, the view and visitor stats are the same and that's impossible. This has been a problem since 9/28 and I've sent at least three support requests. I even gave the date when the problem began.**_

"

**Chapter 58 Naked and Afraid**

"

Jax had the bathroom door open in just a few seconds. The glass shower Ava peered through was clear from the beginnings of her cleavage up. The rest of the glass was pebbled and opaque screening her body from view.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Ava shouted furiously. She shut the shower off.

"Having a meaningful talk with my lovely wife," Jax said as he scooped up Ava's dress, bra, panties from a hook and all the towels from the towel rack next to the shower.

"I locked the door. That means privacy. Put everything back right now."

"Come out of the shower and get them," Jax said. He put the towels, her bra and her dress down next to where he was leaning against one of the double sinks in the marble vanity that stretched along one wall with a long mirror above it reflecting the shower and the large bathtub next to it. He was dangling her blush pink panties from his fingers as he looked at her in the shower.

"Get out of the bathroom and I'll get them," Ava said, her voice seething with anger.

"Where's the fun in that?" Jax asked.

He didn't get Ava's reluctance to show off her body. The crow-eaters weren't shy about taking off their clothes. Most Fridays ended with naked girls sometimes often playing pool for SAMCRO's viewing pleasure.

Most girls, even non-crow-eaters, wanted to show off what they had and, from the little he'd seen of Ava's body in her swimsuit; he wanted to see more. She definitely had a figure worth showing off. Hell, he was her husband. She was supposed to be naked for him.

"Leave my clothes and the towels and then get the hell out of here you mother fu . . ."

"Such language," Jax interrupted mocking her. "If you want your clothes and the towels, you're going to have to be a lot nicer than that."

'Please," Ava said losing an almost imperceptible amount of fury from her voice.

Ava knew that Jax was too strong for her to kill him without a weapon. She wondered what the gun laws were in Hawaii and if there was a waiting period. Her husband had had two attempts on his life. He needed protection so she got a gun as a surprise. She saw an intruder and shot him. She didn't know it was her husband. She wasn't used to being married. Jax would die in a tragic shooting. She wondered how friendly Hawaii was about accidental killings. Some states were easier to hide an "accidental" killing in than other states. If only she had her phone to check it out.

Ava made herself face reality as unpleasant as it was; killing Jax was a fantasy. A pleasurable fantasy, but that's all it would ever be. When it came down to it, he had made her hate him enough to kill him now, but she didn't have the guts to do it no matter how tolerantly Hawaii looked at "accidental" killings. She was OK with killing him; it was all the legal stuff that came afterwards that kept her from doing the world a favor and eliminating Jax Teller from it. She didn't think she could get away with it.

Ava was shy about her body because she'd faced attention from men when she'd turned twelve and her breasts developed. When she was fourteen, she had to walk past a construction site to get to school and construction workers would whistle at her and make comments. It made her feel bad about her body. She'd had enough of men brushing up against her to feel her breasts to last her a lifetime. She wasn't a piece of meat and thanks to her breast size, that's what she'd felt like since puberty.

No one had given her any guidance about sex, relationships or anything else. She'd watched her friends go from guy to guy sleeping around and decided using her beloved Hallmark movies as her romantic example might work better. She dressed modestly because she didn't want a guy to be with her because he liked the size of her chest or the way her body looked.

Her only departure from Hallmark movies was when it came to sex. She fell in love easily and out of love quickly. Occasionally she stayed in love long enough to get to sex because she didn't want to be with a guy who was bad in bed. She knew that movies and books oversold sex, so she didn't expect a romance novel caliber experience. She expected it to be at least a little bit good. So far, she'd been underwhelmed by sex. None of the handful of guys she'd been with was worth sticking with for sex especially when a sex toy provided more pleasure.

There were parts of sex that she didn't like beginning with being naked. At least it was dark when she had sex and there were sheets. The thought of letting Jax see her naked under the terrible fluorescent lights made her want to throw up. Jax was such a bastard. The way he would look at her made her skin crawl. It would be far worse than construction workers at fourteen.

How the hell was she going to get the towels or her clothes or something to cover up with? What would her father advise her to do? He wouldn't tell her a damned thing. He never was a parent to her but she did remember all the cases he would bore her with whenever they had dinner. Her father would advise a client to negotiate. What did she have that he might want? OK. This wasn't helpful.

"What do you want?" Ava asked. She decided to give it a shot. Maybe he would be reasonable.

"Sex."

"Hell no."

"Not just no, but hell no," Jax said chuckling. "OK. I'll settle for seeing you naked."

"That isn't a negotiation," Ava protested.

"You want to negotiate? OK. How's this. I've got a lot of saltwater in my hair and on my body. I really need a shower. You either come out of the shower or I'll strip and come in."

"You wouldn't," Ava said with a little hope and a lot more fear. She didn't think things could get worse and the son of a bitch found a way to make it much worse.

"Do I seem like the shy type to you?" Jax asked cocking an amused eyebrow at her.

"Come on, Jax, please be nice," Ava said sweetly. Being a bitch hadn't worked. She would try a new approach.

"Let me explain something that you're going to need to know about outlaw bikers and me. If someone does something, you retaliate. Always harder. Consider this payback for your little chat with Paul."

Son of a bitch, Ava thought. How the hell was she going to get out of this? Was there any chance he might give her a break?

"

_**Can Ava come up with a way to outsmart Jax, convince him to leave the bathroom or will she just have to let him see her naked?**_


	59. Chapter 59 Hot and Bothered

6

**Chapter 56 Hot & Bothered**

"

"

_**Software Bugs: It appears that some progress has been made on fixing the software bugs. I don't think it's completely fixed, but there are definite improvements.**_

_**"**_

Ava had never really had to think her way out of a jam. She didn't have the skill set, but she was just going to have to figure something out because she sure as hell wasn't about to let Jax see her naked. Pig bastard. Dog tongue kissing son of a bitch.

There it was right before her eyes; the solution to her problem. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it sooner. It was brilliant. Maybe she had some talent for thinking her way out of a jam.

"Let me rinse the soap out of my hair and I'll get out of the shower."

"I can hardly wait."

It sounded like he was drooling. Men were such disgusting pigs and she had married the worst one of all. What was wrong with him other than being male? He could see all the naked women he wanted on the internet.

She turned the shower back on and used almost the whole bottle of body wash to produce enough thick luxurious lather to make a bikini. It covered up all the parts of her body that he wanted to see most. She shut off the water and walked out of the shower.

Jax looked her up and down, disappointment on his face at not seeing his bride naked.

She snatched her panties from his fingers before grabbing a big bath towel and wrapping it around her. She picked up her dress and bra before turning her head to look into his bright blue eyes.

"Pig. Bastard. Asshole," she spit the words out.

Jax's face unexpectedly broke into a big grin.

"Well played, Mrs. Teller," Jax said as he stripped off his shirt.

He was disappointed, but he liked her ingenuity. He liked the fiery side to Ava. It would make it just that much sweeter when she was under him naked. He chuckled softly.

Ava fled. She didn't want to see what was under his trunks. She'd seen that part of a man and it didn't look that much different from guy to guy. Jax could keep his man bits to himself. She closed the bathroom door just before his trunks hit the floor.

She waited a couple of minutes. It would be just like him to leave the bathroom hoping to catch her naked. Pig bastard.

He remained in the shower and Ava dressed with lightening speed. She'd never been so glad to be dressed in her life. She grabbed her combination hair straightener and dryer and began doing her hair. Suddenly, she realized that Jax hadn't brought anything into the bathroom with him. How was he going to get his clothes? Wrap a towel around his waist, gather them and return to the bathroom to get dressed or strut around naked getting dressed in front of her? He had dressed in the bathroom before, but now that he had unlocked the bathroom door while she was in the shower, that changed everything. She would be alert and make sure to shut her eyes before she glimpsed him naked. It was less about not seeing him naked and more about not letting him get the satisfaction of showing her his naked body.

She'd been around guys who thought a lot of themselves. Jax Teller took that to a level she didn't even know existed. He strutted around like he was God's gift to women and she should worship his body. He couldn't get it through his thick head that she didn't like all his muscles. She liked men more long and lanky.

She decided to do her make up so he wouldn't be able to sneak up on her concealed by the noise from her dryer. Sneaky naked bastard.

She rubbed on some tinted moisturizer to her face followed up by blush to simulate a loved up look. Who needs sex when there's blush? Before she started her eye make-up, Jax shut the shower off. She was prepared.

She shut her eyes and massaged her temples so it would look less like she was avoiding his nakedness.

"Ava, have you seen my clothes?" Jax inquired with elaborate casualness.

"You thinking you are so fucking funny and are so hot. I don't find you hot at all. You are repulsive. All those muscles. You're like some barn animal."

"Tell me what you really think and don't worry about hurting my feelings."

Ava kept her eyes closed. She didn't want to see the muscles or his bare ass or the front part either. Why couldn't he be less defined? Just toned and not . . . bulky.

"You can open your eyes now. I've got pants on."

"I'm sure this is just a trick."

Jax took her hand and put it on his butt.

"See? My ass is all covered."

She opened her eyes and scowled at him.

"Let go of my hand. I've touched your ass enough to last me a lifetime."

Jax released her hand a smirk on his face.

"How dare you break into the bathroom when I'm in there!" Ava said furiously.

"Do you remember you asking me what I was going to do to you if you didn't behave the way I wanted? You thought the only thing I could do was use harsh words."

"I remember."

"There are other things and today you found out one of them."

"Because I said a couple of words to Paul? You are really that jealous." Ava knew that Jax wasn't jealous but she was hoping that Paul had not completely sold her out.

"Paul asked me out."

"Son of a bitch," Ava said. She couldn't believe it. Paul hadn't seemed gay to her at all, he seemed to really like her and find her attractive.

"That broken-hearted, eh? Just ask me next time if a guy's gay or not. I'll set you straight."

"Bastard."

"Me or Paul? He spilled everything from my being broken hearted over losing my cellie to you wondering if I can ever love a woman."

"No matter what I said, it didn't give you the right to break into the bathroom."

"Doesn't matter to me what you think. You deserved it for your misbehavior telling Paul I'm gay. He was disappointed but not surprised that I'm not gay. I told him that you are bat shit crazy and I'm just trying to keep you from getting locked up in a mental institution."

Ava's eyes brightened with anger and her face flushed.

"You son of a bitch. I've had it with you. I'm not speaking to you."

"Best thing I've heard all day. I'm going to have dinner at the place Jeeves got us reservations. According to him, there's a great show with dinner. Are you coming? We have an hour."

"I'm coming because the food is supposed to be really good, but I'm not going to talk to you."

"Great. Just nod your head."

Ava nodded her head.

''

"

_**Next Up: Hell in an Elevator—a chapter inspired by reviewer Maddye who mentioned marriage counseling for Jax and Ava. Imagine Ava and Jax stuck in an elevator with the claustrophobic author of Five Minute Marriage Fix. Anyone think that's going to work?**_

_**************COVID Info**********************_

_**My nephew complained of back and leg pain, he had a slight cough the next morning and NO FEVER. He tested positive. Days later, he now has lost his sense of taste and smell. I'm mentioning this because I'm still seeing a lot in the media that you have fevers with COVID and that isn't the case.**** Not**__**everyone has a fever. I know early on you couldn't get a COVID test unless you had a certain level of fever. I also heard on the radio that people are supposed to take their temperature twice a day. This is useless information because you can have COVID without a temp. So, if you feel sick and don't have a temp, it could still be COVID.**_

_**Hope the info helps.**_


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